Penne Ratatouille Bolognese

There is so much delicious vegan food here in Tel Aviv, my bank account is in serious danger!  Now that the holidays are over and we're getting settled into a regular routine, we've been cooking most of our meals at home.  

Last night I had some whole wheat pasta in the pantry that I wanted to use up.  I messed around and ended up with a delicious sauce, something in between ratatouille and bolognese.  In the US, "bolognese" generally indicates tomato sauce with meat in it, but traditionally bolognese is a sauce comprised mainly of meat with tomato added as flavoring.  So this is a mish-mosh recipe, but it's totally traditional as well. ;)

It's not a fancy recipe but it turned out so well that I had to share it!  

There's no way to make this pretty, but trust me, it was delish.

Penne Ratatouille Bolognese

8 oz penne

extra virgin olive oil, to taste

1 medium eggplant, diced to 1 inch

1 red bell pepper, diced to 1 inch

1 onion, finely chopped

4-6 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups vegetarian burger crumbles (I rehydrated plain dry TVP and it worked perfectly)

3 tablespoons dried basil, or 1/2 cup fresh

salt and pepper to taste

6-8 oz tomato paste

1/2 - 1 cup water

2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil (optional)

1 tablespoon tamari (optional)

Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package.  Make sure to use a huge pot of water, salted liberally once the water comes to a rolling boil. 

Meanwhile, heat a thin layer of olive oil on medium-high in a large, deep pan.  Once the oil is very hot, add the eggplant, season liberally with salt and pepper, and cook until soft, about 5-10 minutes. Drain the eggplant on a paper towel and set aside.

In the same pan, add a little more olive oil on medium.  Once the oil is hot, add in the onions and garlic.  Cook for 10 minutes until everything begins caramelizing, then add the red pepper.  Cook for another 5 minutes, then add in the TVP or crumbles and the basil.  Cook for another 5-10 minutes, adding a dash of salt and pepper.

Add in the tomato paste and work it through the crumbles to evenly coat them.  Add in about half a cup of water and see how everything looks- it should be the consistency of a sloppy joe or a chili, not a sauce.  Add more tomato paste if it is too thin, or more water if it's too thick.  Add in the toasted sesame and tamari, if using (not necessary but it gives the dish a little extra depth), and add the cooked eggplant back to the pan.  Turn heat down to low and simmer for 10-15 minutes, then taste and adjust the seasonings to your preference. 

Add the drained pasta and toss to coat.  Serve with bread slathered in (vegan) butter and nutritional yeast on the side for sprinkling.

Dinner on the balcony.  I'm having a nooch bowl at every meal from now on.

Notes and Thoughts:
-Adding some zucchini would be nice for next time.
-I'm still building my spice cabinet little by little (based on what I can translate at the store), I'd pick up some red pepper flakes next time.
-If you don't do pasta this would be delicious served over roasted potatoes, or even on it's own as a stew.
-If you are TVP adverse, you could sub in cooked brown lentils instead.

Shalom

Greetings from Tel Aviv!

Beach life!

We finally made it!  AP, Pups and I are all safely in Israel and beginning our two year adventure here.  Or possibly, our two years of doing the same boring shit we'd be doing in the US, just in a different time zone.  

We've been exploring our neighborhood and getting a feel for the area.  It's Sukkot so a lot of people are on vacation.  Still, we've been able to get our ducks in a row with regards to our banking and home life situations.  We're walking everywhere- it's so nice to be mobile again after a month and a half in suburbia, land of minivans and drive-throughs.

Our new spot for bathroom breaks at the park down the street.

There are parks all over the city.

Mall rats are universal.

Veganism is huge in Israel - up to 4% of the population identifies as vegan - so I've been enjoying awesome meals everywhere I go!  I haven't had a dish yet that has not been amazing.  The produce here has so much flavor.  AP is eating veggies at every meal and loving it, I'm shocked.  Here's a sampling but check out my Instagram for more food porn.

Salad is served at almost every meal, including breakfast.

Simple roasted veggies in a pastry.  So fresh and tasty!

The best falafel in the city at Hakosem ("The Magician").

Bowls of salad and curries from Villiage Green all-vegan cafe.

ALERT:  There is vegan ice cream at every single ice cream shop

Stay tuned for more posts from the holy land.  It's been a whirlwind getting here, but we're ready to dive in and have a blast in this beautiful country.

Acai Bowls - Healthy Vegan Fridays

**Linking up to Healthy Vegan Fridays this week with a fast, easy summer meal!**

Living in California means that I am very up-to-date on the latest hipster health and foodie trends.  I've seen the kabocha squash phase, the chia seed craze, the brief foray into offal and bacon (blech!!), and the kale revival.  San Francisco hipsters love to find a "superfood" from another culture and promptly overhype it, jack up the price and eat it at every meal.

The latest mainstream superfood is the acai berry from Brazil.  This is mostly seen in the form of the acai bowl, which is the newest breakfast craze.  Which is basically a smoothie in a bowl topped with granola, fruit and other goodies.

Me at Samba Rock Cafe in Santa Cruz

Alleged health benefits, according to Samba Rock.

How to eat it! 

From Vitality Bowls in Redwood City

Acai bowls are so simple, but I was intimidated to try making them at home.  That was silly of me- they are so simple and come together in ten minutes!  

The nice part about acai bowls is that, in my opinion, the acai part is optional.  If you can't get your hands on the special berry, substitute blueberries and you're still down to clown.

Basic Acai Bowl (Serves Two)

1/2 cup milk (I use vanilla soy)

1 frozen banana

1 packet frozen acai (or sub 1/3 cup frozen blueberries)

3/4 cup frozen strawberries (or any combo of strawberries plus raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, etc.)

Combine everything in a food processor or high speed blender until smooth. the mixture should be very thick.  Layer with granola (I make my own) and fruit in a bowl, and gobble up!

The brand of frozen acai I use.

Keep it nice and thick like ice cream!

Layer 1: fruit and granola

Layer 2: acai smoothie

Layer 3: toppings! I used granola, bananas, strawberries, blueberries and a dollop of peanut butter.

Here's out breakfast this morning; this recipe makes two regular sized servings, or one small serving and one jumbo serving if you're a pair like us.  You can top it with whatever you like; a dollop of nut butter is a delicious addition.  I actually prefer mine with just peanut butter and bananas, but that looks boring so for this tutorial I added in more fruit to keep it colorful.

His and hers acai bowls.

None for Pups, but I did toss him some fruit while I was chopping, so he was a happy camper.

Ready and waiting in case a rogue banana slice drops on the floor.

These aren't just for breakfast- they are great for any time you want a light meal!  We don't have air conditioning, so these bowls are becoming a quick and easy dinner on days where it's just too hot to cook.

Vegan in Guerneville

It's our last summer in NorCal, possibly forever.  I'm getting in my last bit of exploration before we hit the road.  It' been fun, but it's also a bummer knowing that there is still so much we won't be able to experience.  Even after eight years here, we have not even come close to uncovering all of the beautiful secrets that this state has to offer.

Recently some friends and I were discussing where to go for a girls weekend.  One of us had been to Guerneville in Sonoma County, and suggested it as a nice low-key getaway, so away we went!

As you can see from my sweet Solar Shields, I am ready for adventure.

Sonoma and Napa are full of little towns like Guerneville - one cute block of downtown nestled along the river amongst a smattering of wineries.  Each town has its own flair, and Guerneville was right up my alley.

One thing that makes it stand out is that there is actually a nightlife.  We didn't roll into town for dinner until about 10.30pm on our first night there, and were wondering if anything would be open besides the Safeway- it's not uncommon around here for everything to shut down at 9pm.  Hell, even in San Francisco nearly all the bars close at 2am.  Guerneville, however, was still hopping.  Most places are open til 10 or 11, but will stay open as late as there are customers. We finished dinner at midnight and plenty of places downtown were still going strong.

We ended up eating at a funky place that's an american-style diner during the day, and a Korean place (Dick Blomster's) in the evenings.   The food was amazingly good, seasoned and spiced perfectly, with generous portions at a shockingly fair price.  We shared some fries and chrysanthemum greens as appetizers, then for my main course I had the tempeh and rice cake dish. 

The portion looks small in this bowl, but that's because the bowl was the size of a basketball.

View from our patio- wineries to the right, mountains to the left.  We took it easy on our first morning there and enjoyed some fruit and mimosas while taking in the scenery.

Mimosas are the true breakfast of champions.

In stereotypical girls weekend fashion, we headed out for brunch and ended up at Boon Eat + Drink.  There wasn't anything listed on the menu that looked completely vegan, so I went ahead and checked with the server.  Everyone in Guerneville is familiar with what "vegan" entails, so it was no problem.

We started off with truffle fries and roasted brussels sprouts.  You can't go wrong with either of those.

Nice and garlicky, with plenty of crispy parts!

Truffle fries + homemade ketchup = YUM

I had a hankering for breakfast potatoes, so I ordered them topped with the ratatouille.  This was a simple dish but it was prepared excellently.  I licked my plate clean.  Or rather, wiped it clean with a truffle fry.

Another deceptively large bowl.

 There are a number of small art studios in town, and a good number of the people who love there are artists.  Walking around town you'll notice multiple koi fish paintings on the streets.  

Wonder where they are swimming to?

Bridge over the Russian River

View of the river from the bridge.

After wandering around downtown, we headed to the river for some sun and swimming.  The water was not nearly as cold as ocean water, and the current was light enough that we were able to dive in and splash around at our leisure.

Secret beach.

High five!

On the way home we stopped for ice cream at the Guerneville Bank Club, a renovated bank building that houses ice cream, pie and boutique shops all merged into one.  Nimble & Finn's provides the ice cream, and they always have at lease two vegan flavors on tap.

I love a town that appreciates dogs!  Where's the husky pup, though?

VEGAN ICE CREAM!!!

They will let you try every flavor in the store! I liked both flavor options but went with the coconut caramel.

Just looking at this pic makes me hungry again.

For our final dinner in town, we drove down to the town of Jenner.  It's super tiny- no downtown at all, just one really awesome restaurant, River's End.  Again, nothing obviously vegan on the menu, but the server was able to rattle off everything that she could veganize.

FYI- all of their salads can be made vegan.  I'm picturing all three here.

Duck breast salad without the duck!  Wilted spinach, lentils, roasted cherries and almonds

Orzo salad with roasted veggies and pickled fennel.  They veganize this by leaving off the cheese.

Beet salad!  This one has cheese on it but they'll leave it off for vegans.

For my main course, they veganized the vegetable napoleon.  Farro topped with roasted vegetables and tofu, with balsamic glaze on the side.  This was good, but I was already pretty full from the salad.  I'd say that any one of the salads would make a fine main course.  Everything is very fresh, and prepared to let the natural flavors of the veggies shine.

More brussels, obvi.

The next morning, we grabbed coffee and headed back to the real world.  On the way out I noticed a cute smoothie place.  I wish I had been hungry enough to grab a smoothie- maybe next time!

Strawberry signage!

Green smoothie menu!!

If you're looking for a weekend trip, Guerneville is highly recommended for a vegan/pup/LGBTQIA/family friendly vacay.  I wish I had enough time to go back with AP and Pups, but for now we are moving on to other adventures.

That's good advice for us all.

Healthy Vegan Fridays- Crockpot Curried Potatoes with Chickpeas

Ok let's be real, it's hard to take a picture of curry and have it look appetizing.  I mean, if you are lazy like me.  I'm sure if you used a fancy camera and spend 40 minutes poking at the food  and added a sprig of rosemary or whatever, it would looks awesome.  But that's not my style.

I made this last Sunday and have been eating it for lunch all week.  It's not a fancy curry, and it's definitely not meant to be authentic to any cuisine.  It's a light, mild version that even people who hate curry would be able to enjoy.  I ate it as-is but it would be nice as a side dish, maybe alongside salad and some grilled tofu.

I'm also linking up this week for Healthy Vegan Fridays with Rock My Vegan Socks!

Basic Crockpot Curried Potatoes with Chickpeas

3 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

1/2 onion, diced

1 can chickpeas, drained

1 can diced tomatoes, drained

1 can coconut milk (I used light)

1/2 tablespoon garam masala

1 teaspoon coriander

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon cardamom

1 teaspoon coarse group pepper (or to taste)

1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

dash of cayenne if you like it hot

Mix everything in the crockpot and let it go on low for 4-6 hours, stirring occasionally.  It will be watery when you pump everything in, but the sauce will thicken from the potato starch.  Don't let it overcook or else you'll end up with potato puree.

Adjust the seasonings before you serve; the potatoes will soak up a lot of salt so you may need to add more. You can add more garam masala if you want to pump up the flavor as well.

Serves 4-6.

Looks weird, tastes yum!

Weekend of Eating All the Food

Finally, AP and I are both back to 100%.  This past weekend we celebrated our good health by going out and Eating All the Things.  Even though the weather report cautioned rain on Saturday, it was a gorgeous weekend, so we spent a good deal of time outside enjoying our last California spring.

Friday night I peaced out of work early and met up with AP at Quinto Sol for kick-ass margaritas.  I got the enmolatas which are vegan as-is on the menu.  I love their mole sauce, but I'm always afraid to recommend it to others.  NorCal folks take their mole seriously.

I could drink this sauce with a straw, mmmmm......

On Saturday morning, we woke up early and trained into Oakland for the first ever Oakland VegFest!  I'd never been to Lake Merritt amphitheater before and didn't realize it was basically a small open park- I'd been expecting it to be bigger, and enclosed.  I have to say it was a pleasant surprise; it was a very laid back setup and the view was gorgeous.

Beautiful view, crappy pics, my bad. 

We got there before the 11am start time so we were able to score one of the goodie bags they were giving away.  Free samples, whoot!  I loved the Beanfields chips- the volunteer gave me a fistful of coupons that I can't wait to try out.

WTF am I supposed to do with the coffee flavored "mylk"? Anyone?

Since it was a small event, we'd seen what there was to see fairly quickly.  AP was getting hungry and cranky, so we headed down to Jack London Square to one of his fave restaurants, Souley Vegan.

AP's plate: southern fried tofu with ranch, mac and cheese, rice and beans.  The mac sauce is a basic nutritional yeast concoction that we are both fans of, although this batch went a little heavy on the garlic powder.  Still delish though.

My plate: BBQ tofu, collards, mashed potatoes and gravy.  These collards were insanely good.  I just ordered them to get a green veggie on my plate, but I was beyond impressed.

We weren't hungry for dinner until about 8.30pm, so I threw together a salad.  Gardein chicken strips, toasted tortilla strips, southwest blend, and spicy marcona almonds.  For the dressing, I mixed vegan ranch and BBQ sauce.

A salad that AP actually enjoyed.

AP was getting pouty about the lack of vegan baked goods in our home and in Starbucks (his home away from home).  I decided to test out the Pinterest trend of soda cupcakes.  You take a box of cake mix (Duncan Hines has a ton of vegan ones) and instead of adding the eggs, oil, water, whatever, you just mix in a can of soda.  Coke for chocolate cakes, lemon-lime for vanilla cakes.  I used a Duncan Hines devil's food and a can of diet coke.  They turned out pretty good- AP liked them better than regular cupcakes.  Fluffier.

I just bought a can of frosting to top them with, because laziness.

On Sunday morning, I tried out another cheater recipe, canned biscuit donuts.  This one turned out pretty good as well!  The dough wasn't as sweet as traditional donut dough, but I counted that as a plus.

I used the recipe off the Pillsbury website, with some changes- I used the regular sized biscuits instead of Grands (so they'd be mini sized- also they cooked in about 10 seconds per side), I coated them with powdered sugar rather than granulated, and for the icing I halved the recipe and used 1/4 c Nucoa margarine and 1/4 c coconut oil.

How cute are these??

Pups and I did take a break from our gluttony to get some nice walks in around town.  We also found the time to stalk some geese.

Not pictured: six geese flying frantically into the bushes.

Soon, ducks... soon...

Lunch on Sunday was sandwiches from the place across the street.  They have a ton of veggie meats, but I kept mine simple with a veggie-only version.

Lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, mushrooms, marinated artichokes and a little soy cheese.

We finished off our weekend with the traditional Sunday evening pizza.  Routine is the best way to end a week of adventure. 

BBQ sauce, Follow Your Heart mozzarella, pineapple, chopped up Field Roast patty and scallions.