Katie's Cooking Tips: for vegetarians and individuals seeking a meat-free life.

I always associate the springtime with baking and cookies. One food that sticks out in my mind is hot cross buns. No one in my family ever made them for Easter. But for some reason I think of them in the warmer months. It may be because they always seem to pop up in the stores at this time.

Actually, I just went to the store today for some iced tea and I saw them. I was looking around for a good resource about hot cross buns. Perhaps, where they came from and maybe a good recipe. And I did!

If you are as curious as I am, visit http://www.hotcrossbuns.co.nz

The recipe is easy to follow too. Make sure you take a peek at that.

Don’t they look yummy?

Another food I like to associate with the spring time is coconut cake. I remember every Easter, my aunt Barbara would always get a bunny shaped coconut cake. And I remember that it never really tasted that amazing, but I just loved looking forward every year to it. It was just one of those things. I went scouring the internet for a good coconut cake recipe, that was moist and flavorful and I think I got it!

Extra Moist Coconut Cake! Yay! I like how simple this one is

Looks good right?!

Ingredients

• 1 (18 1/2 ounce) box white cake mix
• 3 egg whites (or as called for by your cake mix)
• 1/3 cup oil (or as called for by your cake mix)
• 1 1/3 cups water (or as called for by your cake mix)
• 1 teaspoon coconut flavoring
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 (8 ounce) container whipped topping
• 1 1/4 cups coconut
• 1 cup evaporated milk

Okay that is all for today Cya soon.

So I decided I should update with an informative post. The number one question I get when I tell someone that I am a vegetarian is, “What do you eat?” or “How do you live?” I also get:

• Don’t you miss meat?
• Are you crazy like PETA?
• Do you crave meat?
• Do you eat chicken?
• What made you decide to stop eating meat?

Now the last one, I don’t take offense to. It’s a good one. And it deserves a good answer.  I stopped eating meat almost 10 years ago for basically personal reasons. The taste just put me off. I hated tasting blood, metal and flesh. That’s all I could taste when I ate any meat. It grossed me out and just left a gross taste in my mouth. I dissected a fetal pig in Honors Biology, and I stopped eating pork at that moment. Never looked back. Seeing the flesh, organs and the fact that it was once living just made me sick to my stomach. I didn’t need to eat it. I had no appetite for it. So that was pork. I stopped eating beef when I stopped eating pork. They kinda went hand in hand. Once I stopped eating piggies, I just stopped eating cows. It was a mutual thing. I still ate chicken and turkey, but not so I could see the meat itself, it needed to be hidden by breading or something. I could not eat it off the bone, that made me want to vomit. Eventually, that summer, (2001) I stopped eating poultry. At first, it was just to see if I could do it. It was like a test for me, but then like pork/beef I just lost my taste for it and I just didn’t want or care to eat it anymore. I haven’t looked back since.  It will actually be 10 years this summer.

Now I hear people all the time, saying that meat substitutes and tofu are gross and tasteless. But this is a LIE! Meat substitutes don’t taste like metal, or blood and were not once alive animals. This is my justification for eating meat substitutes. Okay, get off my back. But anyway, there are TONS of companies out there making great non-meat products. Here is my list:

• Gardein
• Morning Star Farms
• Veggie Patch
• Garden Burger
• Boca
• Quorn

The store also sometimes makes their own version, like Trader Joes for instance.  If you cook it the right way, with the right seasonings and sauces, it tastes delicious. Any recipe can be turned “with meat” into a vegetarian version.

Spaghetti bolognese can be substituted with MSF’s meat crumbles or Boca’s meat crumbles. (Note: I do eat dairy products, I am not a vegan.)

A simple chicken caesar salad can be prepared with MSF’s chicken strips or cut up breaded chicken patties.

It’s also extremely healthy to “not” eat meat as well. Meat does give you proteins and vitamins you need, but the meat substitute products are also giving you these same benefits. If you want to break up your diet and change things up a bit, don’t be afraid to try meatless foods.

A vegetarian can also just remove the meat from any recipe they want to make is veg friendly. They can substitute chicken broth with vegetable broth! There are endless options, and just because we don’t eat meat, it doesn’t meat we don’t eat at all and it also doesn’t mean go crazy with junk food.

One thing a vegetarian needs to be careful of is hidden meat products disguised under different names.  One of these ingredients is called “Rennet.” Rennet is (from Wikipedia) – “Dried and cleaned stomachs of young calves are sliced into small pieces and then put into saltwater or whey, together with some vinegar or wine to lower the pH of the solution.” Yuck, right? So basically rennet is the diced up stomachs of a cow. So, yes not vegetarian…obviously. Rennet can be found in many cheeses.

Now I hope this gave you an insight to why I am a vegetarian and what I eat! This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to vegetarian lifestyle and eating. Be sure to stick around for more helpful tips and recipes!

I have been thinking really hard about possibly doing a summer trip to Japan.

I am saving up my money and hopefully I can achieve this dream next summer.

It would be absolutely amazing. But I am finding it hard to save my money when I have bills to pay, and loans to pay back.

It’s so tough, but this is always something I have wanted to do and I can’t give up my dream.

Beautiful bamboo forest in Kyoto.

I find the old style houses in Japan so amazing. The traditional style is so awesome.

Can you imagine standing near Mt. Fuji in the snow? Absolutely gorgeous.

So, I’ve been wondering what kind of vegetarian fare is offered in Japan.

What is great, it that tofu is a huge part of their diet. So I don’t think I need to worry much.

I need some new tofu recipes. I make the same old things with it. I have seen some people get really creative with tofu, I  wish I had the time and patience.

This looks delicious! Baked Teriyaki Sesame Tofu.

I think I have mentioned Quorn on this blog many times before, in my opinion them and Gardein are basically the leaders in the vegetarian world right now. Although Veggie Patch is pretty awesome, Boca, Morning Star Farms, and Gardenburger of course.

So many options!

Alrighty, going to tell all of you a little secret I have. It’s a dream of mine to go to London. It is on my bucket list, for sure. But was unsure because I know London restaurants and food do incorporate a lot of meat. But I was relieved to find out from my friends at Pages of London, that London does have a huge vegetarian following. Vegetarian culture in London is a huge up and coming lifestyle. My school right now is actually offering a trip to Europe with London being one of the main stops. I am so interested in doing this because like I said, traveling to Europe is something I have always wanted to do.

Doing a little snooping online, I found tons of great resources for vegetarians wanting to find help with eating in London. I stumbled upon this fantastic restaurant while surfing. The Hummus Bros are a neat little place in London that actually allow you to browse their menu online your own way. You can customize it based on your likes and eating habits. How cool is that!?  I would totally dig their Falafel Salad.

So this school trip to London is during the summer but it’s way way expensive. It’s about $4,000 for 2 months. NOT including credits and the credits are mandatory. The credits are probably another $1,000. So it’s not worth it, because I graduate in May with extra credits anyway. I don’t need another 3.

Okay, so I thought it would be a great idea to actually post one of my own recipes again. Considering this is MY cooking blog, haha. BACK ON TRACK!

So, I was trying to think of something I haven’t done yet, and then I realized I pretty much covered a lot of food groups. With this one, I am going to combine a bunch of things.

Vegetable quick rice with stir fried vegetables and chik’n strips!

(no original picture because I haven’t made it yet, man  I SUCK)

But trust me, it would look a lot like this.

I do get lazy, hey who doesn’t? SO. I like to use the quick rice. Microwave it baby.

Rice

1 cup water, 1 cup quick rice.

TBS marg or butter. I use Smart Balance!

And 1/2 tbs of this stuff: Better than Bouillion Vegetarian Soup Base

They also offer a meat free chicken and beef kind. But I cannot find in any stores this near me :{

Microwave for about five minutes and you’re all set!

Veggie Stir Fry Ingredients

Onion

Pepper

Carrot Chips

Celery

Snow Peas

Broccolli

1 can of Water chestnuts

Bean sprouts

Now I am not going to tell you how much you need of each of these because,

well I am not sure how many people you are feeding. Add as much as you want.

Instructions for Stir Fry

Chop, cut, julliane, whatever  all the veggies up.

Add a little soy sauce and teriyaki sauce to this mixture.

Heat up a skillet or pan, add a little olive oil and chopped garlic

Once the pan is heated, add those veggies.

I also like  to add a bit of stir fry sauce to  give more flavor and sauce for the rice.

If you have a chinese market near you, I suggest you go and browse their inventory.

You might find something you like. I actually use a sauce I found there, but I cannot find anything online about it.

Add your stir fry sauce and put a lid on the pan.

You can now prepare your tofu, or tempeh, or vegetarian chicken. For this, I will use:

Morning Star Farms – Chik’n Strips.

Once the veggies are tender, add those babies and just wait til the sauce thickens and everything is cooked.

Then add the rice at the end. And its complete. ENJOY!

I just went to my local A&P and I found Morning Star Farms hot dogs!

Thrilled, I am thrilled. I bought 3 boxes .

I like to dip these babies in a mixture of:

• 1/2 Tablespoon of mayonnaise
• Couple squirts of mustard
• Teaspoon of horseradish sauce

So good!

Guys, cannot tell you how excited I am.

Morning Star Farms stopped making vegetarian Mini Corn Dogs and Corn Dogs a few years back. But I just found out they are making them again!

YAY. These were my absolute favorite, along with the broccoli bites (R.I.P.) I hope they bring those back too, nomnomnom!

I just-ugh-I am really happy. I remember I emailed the company asking why they would do such a horrible thing to me and stop making my favorite snack food ever. Apparently they were losing money and had to cut back on production. And sadly, my prized mini-corn dogs got the ax. ;_;

Well, that is all in the past now. They are back! Unfortunately, they’re not in my area yet but I am hoping and praying they will be. HEAR THAT MSF!? I WANT MY CORN DOGS!

Hey guys, again slacking I know. I have been so busy with the holidays and everything.

So I will do a quick, little update telling you what I did for the holidays up until now.

Christmas Eve: Went to my friend Corey’s house for a little wine party.

Christmas: Had dinner at my Uncles with my cousins, dad, brother and grandma. Then came home, cooked my Tofurkey. I ate Christmas dinner with my mom. In the evening I went to The Grove, hung with my brother, and my friends Corey, Chris, Rich, Christine and saw EVERYONE from high school. So. many. people. It was packed, and I thought that was weird for a Christmas night.

And then, we had Snowpacalypse 2010 again. 

This was probably HALF WAY through the storm. We had so much more after this. A total of 23 inches.

Anyways. So after the snow stopped,  I didn’t go anywhere for a few days. Locked indoors because of the snow and crappy roads. I wonder where all my tax money goes? Because the township sure didn’t use it to plow my street. And I live on  road that goes through 3 towns. So, yeah. Pretty nasty.

Okay, nothing really else happened until New Years. I spent it at my friend Peter’s house. Lots of fun!

So inbetween that, and today…all I have really done is work. OH! I also went to a Devil’s game and I might be working with their Marketing Department in Social Media/Blog/ and Fan Interaction. So yay! That sounds good to me.

Still waiting on one more grade from last semester but my GPA is almost a 3.7. I wish it was a 3.85 but that seems unreachable at this point.

Also! I was flipping through channels and a Vegetarian special was on the Cooking Channel. The Veg Edge on the Cooking Channel featured a lot of great vegetarian places to eat at. Although most of these places were in Texas, and Portland, it was great info. If I ever venture to those states and cities I know where I can eat.

I have mentioned vegetarian restaurants around where I live, but these places look amazing!

So I also went to a Devils game this week. I went on Tuesday. And it was fun, but they lost. Of course. I got this great opportunity to work with the Devils Marketing Department now, and I think it’s going to be pretty neat. Hopefully that will work out for me.

I have a lot to say but it would be so disorganized in this entry. As you can see, I am pretty much all over the place. I am currently reading Russell Brand’s autobiography. It is pretty nuts!

I want to try out this recipe as well. I think I may do it this weekend if I have the chance. Google calls it Cabbage and Pea curry, but I don’t want to add any curry!

Ingredients are:

Cabbage

Peas

Egg noodles

Garlic

Pinch of paprika

Salt and pepper

Olive oil (Tbs)

Steps:

1. Saute the garlic in the olive oil

2. Add chopped cabbage and peas, and onions too if you’d like

3. Let that saute together and add the salt pepper and paprika.

4. Boil water for the egg noodles

5. Add noodles to the sauteed veggies and let the olive oil soak into the noodles

And thats it! Simple! I just came up with this recipe really fast. I was thinking about what food I have in the cabinet and I came up with that.

Yeah, sorry. Have not updated in quite some time. May have to do with the fact that I was really busy with classes, finals, papers and studying.  But now that is all over, I am back to working full time – 40 hours a week.  Maybe even more. Let me tell you right now, I cannot believe how fast the semester went. I cannot believe how fast the YEAR went. It’s almost 2011. How disgusting is that? Christmas is in 4 days. I haven’t done any shopping. BARELY anything. I am slacking in all aspects of my life. I am too lazy to blog, to cook, to shop…to do anything. It’s really sad! I think that my new years resolution is to get off my butt and DO THINGS.

What is funny is the first few sentences of my post talked about how I was so busy with school that I was too BUSY to do anything. And now here I am talking about how I don’t do anything and waste my life away. Can I get anything straight? Seriously.

Well, 2011 is around the corner. This marks another year where people can’t wear those STUPID New Year’s glasses with the eye holes in the 00’s.

Thank god. SO tacky!

Lame!

Seriously?!

Okay, anyway. My mom found this recipe that I thought I would pass along.

It’s not original; GASP I know. But I don’t have time to think of something today.

Mac and Cheese with Broccoli

Yum- enjoy!

Last semester, I did an entire marketing campaign for Zappos.com in my Integrated Marketing Communication class.

I remember we had to do a lot of research on the company. I already knew a lot about Zappos.com and even ordered shoes from them prior to doing this project.

Of course, I could not help but browse their inventory while doing my homework.  I was thinking about my friend and what I was going to get her for her birthday. She loves boots so I went over to their Dr. Martens section and found a lot of great things.  I was surprised to see that they not only have womens shoes but accessories and men’s shoes as well.  I thought about my father and brother as I browsed their inventory and what they might like for their birthday’s. This was in April and I was thinking about their birthdays which are in June and July. How crazy am I ? Hahaha.

Anyway, they have lots of options and colors available. So I totally recommend taking a look over there. Zappos.com is great because they have free shipping worldwide and can send out a pair of shoes like one day before you need them. What’s not to love?

Wow, I really need to stop slacking,

So I went home Monday, ready to take a picture of my pot pie and it turns out my dad ate the rest of it.

I couldn’t take a wonderful photo for you! Funny thing is, he isn’t a vegetarian! And he thought that my mom made an actual chicken pot pie!

He could NOT tell the difference. Haha, I totally tricked him, but not even on purpose. I asked him later on that week on Wednesday….

“Hey dad, how did you like my vegan chicken pot pie?” – Me

“HUH. What vegan chicken pot pie? I didn’t eat a vegan pot pie. I ate the one that was on the fridge that mom made.” – Dad

“Mom didn’t make a pot pie. I did. And that was soy chicken in there.” – Me

“Wow. Really?! I should try your soy crap more often.” – Dad

Haha. I love it!

Anyway last night I saw HP 7, the midnight showing at the AMC theater.

IT WAS AWESOME. I won’t spoil anything on here for anyone. But I really recommend you seeing it.

Even if you don’t read the books, GO SEE IT!