A Little Bit Country and a Whole Lot of Lasagna

Funny story actually how I found this recipe, a new favourite in this house hold.

I am the daughter of a cattle farmer and I spent most of my summers when I was a child on the family farm. Country music was always playing and I was obsessed with Garth Brooks. Think of an eight year old little girl singing at the top of her lungs that she's got friends in low places or asking you if you want to be a part of the American Honky Tonk Bar Association. Yup. Good times.

Well, a couple months ago, I was watching the Food Network and noticed that Trisha Yearwood (also a country singer) was having her husband Garth Brooks as a special guest on her show about southern cooking. To my surprise they were going to make a popular dish in their household and it included tofu. Who saw that coming?! I sure didn't.

Trisha (I like to think we are on a first name basis) explained that her family is trying to eat healthier and so they tweaked some of their favourite dishes like her black bean lasagna. She found a way to cut out the amount of cheese they use by substituting the ricotta cheese you would usually use with tofu between the layers of pasta. It's Garth's favourite dish that she makes. My eight-year-old self is jumping around with glee.

I have made this dish a few times already and have made some further changes. The first time I made it, I followed the recipe and found that it was very good, but dry. I wish there was more tomato sauce and that the layers of 'ricotta cheese' was more creamy. The second time I made it, I tried reducing the amount of tomato paste and added some coconut cream to get the textures that I felt this recipe was lacking. I think I succeeded. It's now a new favourite!

Black Bean and Tofu Lasagna

as found of Food Networks website here

Ingredients for tomato sauce:

• 2- 15 oz black beans, rinsed and drained
• 28 oz can of diced tomato (we blend it)
• 5.5 oz  can of tomato paste
• 1 tbsp of dried oregano leaves
• 2 tsp of salt
• 1/2 tsp of black pepper
• 1/4 tsp of garlic powder
• 1 small onion finely chopped

Ingredients for tofu ricotta:

• 1/2 cup of coconut cream
• 14 oz of extra-firm tofu, drained and pressed
• 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast
• 3 tbsp of olive oil
• 2 tbsp of fresh basil or 1 tbsp of dried basil
• salt and pepper

Left over ingredients: 

• Lasagna noodles (I use brown rice noodles)
• 1 cup of your favourite shredded cheese

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large saucepan, combine the tomatoes and their juices, tomato paste, garlic powder, salt, pepper, oregano, onions and black beans. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the lasagna noodles and cook to al dente according to package directions. Drain the noodles well.

Spread 1 cup of the prepared sauce in a 9- by 13- by 2-inch baking pan. Make three layers each of noodles, sauce and Tofu Ricotta. End with the sauce and make sure the noodles are completely covered or they will dry out during baking. Top with shredded cheese. Bake for 45 minutes, uncovered. If you find that the cheese hasn't browned, I use the ovens broil option for a couple minutes until the cheese browns. Allow the dish to stand for 15 minutes before cutting into squares and serving.

Tofu Ricotta:

Crumble the tofu in a food processor and add the yeast, coconut cream, olive oil and basil. Season with salt and pepper. The food processor will blend it all together and you should have a creamy texture. 

Happy (late) Easter!

How was everyone's weekend?

I had a weekend full of food and some drink with more food!

My weekend started off at Luxalune in South Osborne where they have the famous Farmery Beer, a Manitoba product which is served on tap. Bonus!

I also nibbled on some grilled cheese that were the "cutest" I have ever seen. I kid you not, that's how they are described on the menu. Not sure about cute but they were delicious! There was cheese, pesto and tomato between those fried pieces of bread.

This mug was sure cute! I wanted to purchase one but they were sold out unfortunately. Next time!

Then on Friday, M. and I had a couple friends over for dinner and we made a black bean lasagna and chocolate cookies.

We topped the lasagna with Daiya vegan cheese. This is the second time i've made it and this time, we added some coconut cream to make the tofu ricotta-like layer more creamy. It was really excellent. Everyone went for seconds! The recipe will be posted soon.  

For dessert, my friend A. made a cookie that had quite a kick! It's called a Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles and it had 1/2 a tsp of cayenne. I am not one for spicy things, and the cayenne was a little much but this cookie had a great texture and the chocolate still came through the heat. It was fun cookie to eat!

On Sunday, M. and I found these goodies that the Easter bunny left for us!

We savoured these truffles from Godiva. Starting at the top, they are chocolate caramels with sea salt, and with the closest to the bottom for the truffles, in white chocolate was the caramel brule, to the left was the red velvet, to the right of that was the dark chocolate with raspberry and finally... 

The bunny rabbit! Which was a chocolate mousse covered in a milk chocolate shell. Our favourite. 

For Easter supper, I was asked to bring a dessert. I decided to make blondies. 

But look at this Easter feast that was waiting for us!

We feasted on perogies, buns, scalped potatoes, asparagus, greek salad, cheese plate, veggie platter. There were some meat options too.  

Everyone was loving the food. Even this gal here ended up getting a few treats.

For dessert, I had a jello type cake, blondie and some mini eggs. 

Finally, a key lime cheesecake. 

What a weekend!

Life

Life, sometimes, gets in the way of enjoying our favourite hobbies. Like blogging. It's a poor excuse but I am still trying to learn how to juggle everything without blogging feeling like work.

I have recently been focusing on organizing the River Heights Farmers' Market and getting it ready and in tip top shape for the upcoming season, studying for an exam for a work related course, planning a wedding, dealing with a leak in our basement, maintaining a household and managing this blog. As I said, everyone deals with life differently, and juggle what they feel are their priorities at that time. Fortunately, the leak in the basement seems to be under control, the exam has come and gone and the rest is sorting itself out slowly.

In the mean time, what puts me in a good mood and keeps me calm through all of this is cooking. I haven't made anything too exciting lately but I found this book that has got my spidey senses tingling!

They have really funky and odd combinations of ice cream flavours but also sound crazy enough to still explode your taste buds! A mix of sugary breakfast cereals with vanilla? What about Guinness beer, pretzels and caramel? Yum! It's an ice cream shop in Brooklyn, New York. So you know, whenever you are in the neighbourhood, I think this place would be worth checking out. I am certainly adding it to my "must visit" places when I finally make it to New York state.  

On another note, here are a few pictures of a couple evenings out that M. and I went on to celebrate our finishing school and, you know, LIFE!

M. and I went to see Captain America 2 at the VIP theatres last week. We decided to go a little early to enjoy the eats offered in the lounge. I first started with a mojito. 

 

Some Mac n' Cheese wedges. Which essentially was deep fried Kraft Dinner. It's as disgusting as it sounds!  But M. liked it

To finish off, we had deep fried pickles. They are my favourite. 

After the movie, on the drive home, I noticed that the Bridge Drive Inn on Jubilee is finally open. 

I decided to stick with a classic. Hot fudge sundae.

And a few days later this candy apple given out at work. Oreos and mint with milk chocolate. SUGAR COMA!

Oy! Enough with the junk food!

Happy Birthday, NJPC!

It has officially been one year since I have started this Winnipeg based vegetarian blog.

I have certainly enjoyed sharing with all of you one of my favourite hobbies which is a true passion of mine: anything and everything that deals with, you know, food. Either through cooking, growing, baking or eating food, this past year was a year of growth for me in all four of these categories.

I look back fondly on all my experiences that I was able to share with you during these past 12 months. I am very proud of this blog and although I have some tweaking to do, I will keep pushing myself in the next year to make things even more accessible for all of you and to continue to open up my horizons even further on all that Winnipeg has to offer vegetarians/ vegans.

To celebrate NJPC's 1 year anniversary, M. and I went to Lilac Bakery and brought home some spring- inspired treats.

Starting from the left (with the candle!), strawberry shortcake bar, citrus blossom macaroon, salted caramel macaroon and a Hello Dolly bar. 

And some Easter-coloured peanut M & Ms (Note: not found at Lilac Bakery!) 

Oh Spring, Where Are You?

I almost, ALMOST, believed that spring had finally arrived today.

I was out this morning in my rain boots, a lighter coat and no toque was on my heard or my thickest scarf around my neck. But, nope. My dream of spring was tarnished quite quickly. The mini blizzard that arrived this morning had every Winnipeger collectively yell out, SERIOUSLY!?

However, these little guys are keeping my spirits up. M. and I are getting married this June and part of our centrepieces are herbs and we decided to try and grow them ourselves.

Not bad after two weeks of being planted! The mint or rosemary have not sprouted yet.

Now I am going to curl up with a book and eat my play on a sundae. Some vanilla greek yogurt topped with raspberries, chocolate chips and chopped up hazelnuts. Yum!

A Story About a Casserole and Some Lentils

This is a post that is wayyyyyyyyy over due!  A few weeks ago, M. and I were invited to our friends, A. and M.R.'s home for dinner and they made the most delicious casserole and lentil salad!  I was in charge of bringing dessert. 

Whenever we are invited over for dinner it can be a slight ordeal. Mainly because M. and I (mostly M.) are picky eaters and, I kid you not, we send a list of foods that we are picky about. High maintenance, much? To be fair, people do ask us for a list. Our friends are such good sports about it though. They view it as a new way to either be creative with a dish or as a challenge. But, that could be a code word for something else. 

Our friend A. found inspiration from a recipe from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's latest cookbook, Isa Does it,  called Eggplant & Bread Crumb Fettuccine. Since I am not a fan of this particular squash, A. substituted the eggplant with zucchini and she decided to make the dish into a pasta bake. Instead of using fettucini, she used fusili noodles. 

Our friends also made a lentil salad and A. looked into Isa's cookbooks again and found inspiration from the cookbook Veganomicon. The recipe is called... wait for it... Lentil Salad!  M. unfortunately despises (I am not exaggerating here) onions, red onions and tomatoes and so they were evidently omitted from this recipe but even with those delicious ingredients missing, the salad had great texture, tons of flavour and I could have eaten the entire bowl by myself.  

Excellent meal!

Finally, from Isa Does It (seriously, purchase this cookbook if you haven't already) I decided to make Lemon Shortbread Cookies for dessert with some lemon flavoured icing to top it off. As a twist, I used Meyer lemons instead of actual lemons. I found that the results were sweeter and less tart. For a dessert that did not include chocolate, it was really satisfying. Perfect for the end of this particular meal.

I would love to share all recipes but for now, I will share the lentil salad recipe. The weather seems to be somewhat.. getting... possibly... maybe... warmer so this would be a great salad to keep in mind to make for a BBQ or the next time you have picky eaters coming over for dinner. :)

Lentil Salad 

(from Veganomicon)

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 2 or 3 sprigs thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup uncooked lentils 
• 1 small red onion, chopped very finely (about 1/3 cup)
• 1 small tomato, seeded and diced (about 1/2 cup)
• 2 radishes, grated 
• 1 small carrot, grated
• several pinches of freshly ground black pepper

Dressing

• 2-4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (about 1/2 lemnon)
• 1 clove garlic, minced

Instructions

1. Bring the broth, thyme, bay leaves, garlic cloves, tarragon, and salt to a boil in a medium-size saucepan. Add the lentils and bring again to a low boil. Cover the pot with the lid tilted, allowing a little room for steam to escape. Let cook for 20 to 25 minutes. The lentils should be soft enough to eat but still firm enough to not lose their shape.
2. While the lentils cook, stir together the dressing ingredients in a mixing bowl.
3. Drain the lentils in a mesh colander. Let cool, giving the colander a few shakes every couple of minutes so they drain and cool faster. Once the lentils are lukewarm (about 15 minutes), remove the bay leaves, chunks of garlic, and thyme. Add the lentils to the dressing along with the onions, tomato, radishes, and carrots, and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste, cover, and chill for at least half an hour.
4. When chilled, serve over lettuce with oil and vinegar on the side.