Do not be afraid - of the kitchen!

"Veganomicon" is a great cookbook to help you get comfortable in the kitchen.

If where if you live is anything like the Denver metro area, restaurants are serving more and more delicious vegan items. Mike and I love going out, and as I have written in several posts, we have our favorites for sure. (Note to reader: you can check out our favorite local places to eat by clicking the tab from the main page.)

Although vegan food options are becoming even more amazing in restaurants, I still believe that the best vegan food can come right from the kitchen.

Your kitchen.

I know, I'm sure some of you are like I used to be and are probably rolling your eyes. Many years ago the normal dinner at my place was a couple of Amy's burritos and tater tots. When a met Mike, that type f meal became known as a Dan meal.

Once in a while we decide on a Dan meal for dinner. Life is busy. We both give it our all at our jobs so when we come home a Dans' meal is an easy choice. But for me, things have certainly changed in the kitchen.

I am no longer afraid.

You don't have to be either.

Here's an example. Back in January of last year during the time I was laid off, I decided to use that time and make delicious dinners for Mike. One day I found this amazing recipe for African Peanut Stew. It looked complicated, but I wanted to give it a go. So I jumped in. I went to the market and got the ingredients, came home and read the recipe a couple of times, and then started to create. With my favorite Latino music playing and the dogs eagerly waiting in the kitchen, I rocked it.

Of course the test is if other people like it, and Mike loved it. Such an amazing dish.

There are so many vegan cookbooks out there that I have to believe there is one just for you. Check them out. And some of the links on our main page will lead you to some great recipes. Also, many cookbooks have introductions before the recipes to let you know what you will need to have great experiences with their recipes.

You don't have to be afraid of the kitchen anymore! You can create delicious vegan meals right in your own kitchen!

So grab a vegan cookbook, throw an apron on, and rock it! Oh, and then tell me what you made!

Thanks for reading!

VeganMofo Day 16: Vegan fast food

This is Day 16 of Vegan Mofo, a month of vegan food blog posts, and this post is about vegan fast food. Since I am not a food blogger, most of my posts for Vegan Mofo will not be recipes, rather experiences I have with vegan food and sharing people, places and things that have brought me and continue to bring me amazing vegan food.

Unless you live in a vegan Mecca like Los Angeles, New York City or Portland, having access to vegan fast food might only be a dream. Of course these days, with the popularity of vegan food and people overall wanting to be healthier, you never know where a vegan fast food joint may pop up. I recently heard that there is a Veggie Grill coming to Boulder, CO, about 45 minutes from us, and that would be awesome.

The type of vegan fast food that I am writing about, however, is vegan fast food in your own kitchen. For people who have just become vegan, and for some of us who have been vegan for years, veganism is such much easier if we become comfortable in our own kitchen. The more comfortable we are in the kitchen the better we are going to eat and probably the healthier too!

My standard go to for quick vegan food is beans and rice. In a skillet I take a can of black beans, add cooked brown rice (you can even use the instant brown rice, and some salt and pepper. I like cayenne pepper so I add a pinch of that. When the beans and rice are hot, I add fresh kale, spinach or Swiss chard. Done.

With leftovers, grab some tortillas and make burritos for later in the week.

Mike's version of fast food is his Chik'n and Dumplings. These are delicious and one day soon I will have recipe. I love coming home on a chilly day to the smell of his Chick'n and Dumplings. He basically throws into a pot mixed veggies, water and bouillon and tops it off with Bisquick dumplings. You can add Beyond Meat strips or not, depending on your taste. I remember bringing these to a non-vegan potluck with over a hundred people and a woman from Texas came over to Mike to tell him that his dumplings were perfect!

 This as leftovers makes a great lunch.

I have gotten to the point where I can whip out a great Tofu Scramble in under ten minutes. I've posted my recipe here and it works great for a quick, healthy breakfast and also for breakfast burritos for later in the week.

On the not so healthy side, grilled cheese sandwiches are awesome. Bread and Daiya cheese and you are good to go. I use soy butter to make them but you could use oil or nothing at all with the right skillet. Add some delish soup and boom, another quick meal.

We try (or I should say that Mike tries!) to make a great, delicious sit-down dinner every night, it just doesn't work out all of the time. Having quick options and a few things in the fridge for a last minute dinner will make life so much easier for you!

Salud!

Thanks for reading!

Cooking out of my comfort zone

Mike and I have a joke for what most of my meals were like before we got together. My typical dinner was a veggie burger or burrito with tater tots. It was just me so no need to go crazy. I also would make beans and rice once in a while, with instant rice of course. And on a crazy day I might add spinach or kale just to make it a little more nutritious. We refer to this as "a Dan meal". Whenever one of us doesn't want to cook and we really don't want to go out, Mike will say "let's have a Dan meal".

Over the years I have gotten a lot more comfortable in the kitchen. Mike is the main cook in the family but I certainly enjoy it. I also have found that I love to bake.

The other day I was on Twitter and someone I follow had posted a recipe for an African Peanut Stew. I had always wanted to try this type of stew and I had the whole day. What the heck, I thought. The recipe didn't seem too difficult, and we had most of the ingredients in the kitchen. The process to make the stew seemed lengthy, but not too complicated.

Off to the market I went to fetch the ingredients we did not have. When I got home I re-read the recipe and also read all of the comments so I would be as informed as possible while making this.

I seldom take a recipe off of a blog or recipe website and make it. I have thought about it many and usually give up before long.

Not this time. I had the ingredients, I brought my lap top into the kitchen, the dogs were settled, my Colombian Vallenato music was playing and I was good to go.

The recipe ended up being a lot easier to follow than I had first thought. Speaking with folks who have made a lot of recipes from blogs I realized that this is often the case.

Mike was on his way home and it was time to do the finishing touches. I did those and then set the table, lit a candle and I was good to go.

Dinner came out perfectly. It was delicious on many levels. So many flavors. A great comfort meal.

Lesson learned. Getting out of my comfort zone is easy, fun and delicious! Try it. Grab an online recipe and run with it. Let me know how it goes!

Here is the recipe if you would like to try it: http://www.choosingraw.com/vegan-yam-and-peanut-stew-with-kale/

Thank you for reading!