Deep Fry Friday!

Kaleigh had a brilliant idea for the blog recently.  She thought I should make an occasional post called "Deep Fry Friday" where I show off some of our recent deep fried foods.  I thought I would take advantage of that this week and put some work on display!

I breaded some portabello mushrooms slices and deep fried them.  I made a quick BBQ sauce and salad and these were fantastic! Eve great the following day for lunch!

We have been doing deep fried tofu recently and added it to our stir-fry.  It turned out really well and the tofu had a nice edge to it.

We cut up a tortilla and deep fried it to add in with some red rice and beans with mango.  It was amazing.  I could eat deep fried tortillas all day!

Deep Fried Friday was a lot of fun.  I am sure that I will make another down the road.  It has been amazing having a deep frier in the house!

Recipe Update: Broccoli & Cheeze Soup

We have made a few changes to an older recipe.  Ashley has been asking for Broccoli and Cheeze Soup for awhile now and we pulled it out of the recipe closet to rework.  A few updates from the last posting.

Broccoli and Cheese Soup

2 cloves of garlic
2 1/2 cups of water
2 cups of vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups of broccoli florets
1 cup of raw whole cashews
1/2 cup of nutritional yeast
1/2 cup of onion
2 teaspoons of oil
1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of ground black pepper
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1/2 teaspoon of mustard

Overnight (or for at least 6 hours) soak the cashews in the water in the fridge. Strain and rinse the cashews and set aside.




Saute the garlic and onions in the oil until tender.

In a blender, combine the mustard, turmeric, black pepper, salt, crushed red pepper, nutritional yeast, cashews, sauteed garlic and onions and 1 1/2 cups of vegetable broth and puree for several minutes. The results show be smooth and flavorful but thick.

In a pot on low heat, pour the blender contents and the remaining vegetable broth and stir well. Allow to heat on low heat for about 10 minutes. Add the broccoli (cut into small pieces ~ raw or lightly streamed) to the soup and stir well and cook for another 10 minutes. Do not let the soup simmer. Only use low heat. If the soup gets to thick, add more vegetable broth. Serve hot.

The things vegans rarely get to have...

Here in Atlanta, we are fortunate enough to have Revolution Doughnuts where we can get a wide variety of vegan flavored doughnuts.  However, many folks throughout the vegan world can not.  Since Ashley, Kaleigh and I were on our Spend Nothing for Seven Days Challenge, Revolution was off the menu for us.

The solution?  Do it yourself.  This was my first attempt to use my new deep fryer to make some doughnuts.  I want to prefect the recipe a bit but it was a great (and tasty) start.  I made vanilla doughnuts with a cinnamon sugar glaze then dusted them with a little powdered sugar.  These will certainly be on the menu again soon!

Hummus x2

With the beginning of our Spend Nothing for 7 Days challenge, we decided to make a large amount of hummus to have for snacks and lunches.  We generally eat quite a bit of hummus in the summer months because it is cool and refreshing while still getting us in the kitchen.  Too often, spending a Georgia summer afternoon in a hot kitchen is one of the last things I want to do.

We decided to make two hummus flavors and allowed Kaleigh to pick them.  She wanted a roasted jalapeno hummus again as well as trying a sun-dried tomato hummus.  The sun-dried tomato hummus came out slightly runnier than expected but was still great.  The jalapeno was my favorite, it had a nice heat to it.

We stored them in sealed jars to make sure they last the week.  We can grab some whenever we want and have a healthy refreshing snack!

Spend nothing for 7 days

We have been working on some expensive projects and I have been spending far to much money.  I decided that I needed to get a better handle on my expenses.  After a comprehensive grocery shopping trip and a fill at the gas station, I will not spend any money for 7 days.

I have done this challenge before but this time, Ashley is taking it with me.  It should allow us to save a little more during that time but more importantly, it will allow us to get better control over the finances in the house.

After the massive grocery stop, we decided to make a fancy(ish) dinner.  We made coconut rice with a pinch of lime and coconut tempeh with green peppers and lime.  I really like this dish, although I do not make it nearly enough.

This time we made the sauce a little more soupy which was actually an improvement since we were able to soak on some with the rice.  It was a great dish!

Rice Crispy Treats!

Kaleigh and I made rice crispy treats!  We have made them several time before but not recently.  The most recent time was when we filmed the Cooking with Kaleigh video around Halloween.

These came out perfectly and Kaleigh did most of the work.  She had so much fun spinning the marshmallows and watching them melt in the pan.  She wanted to use some food coloring and make them look fun and excited but I nixed that idea.  I was looking for something more traditional.

For dinner, we had another dish that has been featured on Cooking with Kaleigh, BBQ Portobello mushroom burgers.  It is one of our favorite and something we often eat when Ashley is not home.  Ashley is not the biggest fan of mushrooms so it is perfect for Kaleigh and I.

Seitan Chickin Sandwiches!

Ashley, Kaleigh, and I have been using my new deep fryer for just about everything.  We use it several times a week.  One of the big hits is the seitan chickin I have made for years but the deep fryer adds another level.

This time, we took that same recipe, cut the chickin into slices and added them to sandwiches with my homemade vegan ranch sauce.  We combined it with my homemade fries and Ashley's cole slaw.  It was an amazing meal!

Kaleigh has been out of school for over a week now.  It has been a lot of fun spending more time with her.  We have been cooking a lot more together.  In fact, Ashley even took a day off from work last week and we all spend some quality time together.  We ate a lot of donuts, went to a movie, went to the bookstore, it was great.  I am looking forward to a time when we are not always on the grind and we can all spend quality time together more frequently.

Cooking with Kaleigh; Part 17: Hummus!

Part 17 of Cooking with Kaleigh was a spur in the moment decision.  We were trying to come up with an afternoon snack idea when we decided on hummus filled sweet peppers.  I asked Kaleigh if she wanted to help with the hummus, she eagerly agreed.  Then I asked her is she wanted to film, she was excited to do it and we were off to the kitchen!

Deep Fried Tofu!

Since getting a deep fryer back in March, we have deep fried a lot of different things.  It occurred to Kaleigh and I the other day that we had yet to deep fry tofu.  That had to change.

I was slightly worried that the tofu would stick to the basket but it came off quite nicely.  We pressed it and marinated it for a short time in soy sauce.  After a few minutes in the deep fryer, we pan fried it for a minute in a traditional brown sauce we made.

Kaleigh and I combined the tofu with a load of shiitake mushrooms and green beans, plated over rice, a side of baby bok choy and ate it up.  It was really good.  As a 7 year old, Kaleigh generally only eats her tofu in a scramble but she destroyed the deep fried chunks we made. They were perfect!

Strawberry Picking!

We almost missed the Georgia strawberry season!  We caught the tail end of it and picked 2 amazing buckets of strawberries.  It was pretty muggy out but we still had a great time.

Kaleigh and I made a little mischief and gobbled a few strawberries while we picked, for us, its part of the fun.  When we got home, we chopped them up and frozen them.  Ashley has been making a lot of smoothies recently and since the strawberries were at the end of the season, they were pretty mushy.  Great for smoothies!