I Am Completely Serious

Put a teaspoon of consomme powder and a teaspoon of curry powder in a mug, pour boiling water over it, then add some soymilk. Instant curry soup!

If only I had some of those little dehydrated tofu cubes they put in the instant miso packets, I could drop them in there like marshmallows and create Savory Hot Cocoa.

and if you do not agree then I seriously question your taste. Or your possession of acid reflux? Maybe not everyone has acid reflux, I don’t know. Cold-brew coffee is definitely superior if you can’t handle the acidity of normal coffee.

This is how I make it: take

2/3 to 3/4 cup ground coffee and
4 cups cold water

and combine them in a container of some kind. Refrigerate for at least eight hours - I usually do a full day - then strain out the grounds.

The easiest method is to do the whole procedure in a French press with the plunger out, then plunge it when it’s done. But you can just drip the stuff through a normal coffee filter into a teapot or something, too.

You now have enough super-strong coffee concentrate to last one person a few days. I usually dilute mine in a ratio of 1 part coffee to 2 parts hot water or cold soymilk. It also makes ridiculously good mochas, coffee-flavored desserts, and so on.

I've been eating this a lot recently; it's easy and I have yet to get sick of it. It's good with steamed spinach mixed in. Also, if you want to de-veganize it, goat cheese.

2 cups dried beans (any kind(s))
1 onion
1 potato or sweet potato
1 or 2 stems celery
1 large tomato, diced (or 1 can diced tomatoes)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tbsp Osem pareve chicken-flavored consomme mix*
3 tbsp oil

1) Run beans over plate/cutting board to check for stones. Rinse beans in colander. Place in crockpot, cover with four cups water, set to high.

2) Peel and dice potato, slice celery, add to crockpot.

3) Put consomme powder in heatproof measuring cup. Boil water, pour 1 cup worth into cup, stir in. Add to crockpot.

4) Dice onion.

5) Heat oil in frying pan on medium. When heated, add garlic, then onion, then garam masala, turmeric, and cumin. Sautee until onion is translucent, then add to crockpot.

6) Add enough water to completely cover all ingredients with room to spare as it cooks down. Allow to cook for at least four hours or until beans are cooked through. If cooking overnight, set heat to low.

7) When beans are cooked, add tomato. Serve.


* Yes, I use this stuff in everything, and no, I do not care that it's basically MSG plus some celery salt. You can substitute veggie bouillon if your fear of acronyms trumps your trust in like, the past two decades of nutritional research.

Yup.

1-lb bag of split peas
1 small purple onion, diced
1 large baking potato, peeled and diced
3 cloves garlic, diced/mashed
small piece of side meat or salt pork
salt and pepper

Run split peas over plate/cutting board to check for stones. Rinse in colander, then put in crockpot with all other ingredients and cover with 2-3 inches water. Cook on high until it bubbles up, then switch to low and cook until peas are too mushy to stick in your throat, about six hours. Discard meat and serve, if anyone else in the house wants to eat it (no one does). Put remainder in fridge and continue eating for several days in spite of alarming appearance. I don't care what it looks like, it's good.

The fact that this will by my third oatmeal muffin post may be giving the impression that this food group forms a major part of my diet. This is accurate. They've got lots of fiber and protein, they take like forty minutes to make, and you can eat them with one hand! I ask you, what is not to like about the oatmeal muffin?

- Highly Wheatish Oatmeal Muffins

1 1/4 cups dry oatmeal
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup applesauce
1 cup milk/buttermilk/soymilk/whatevermilk (or water if you don't mind a craggy texture)
1 egg (or another dollop of applesauce if you don't mind a craggy texture)
1/2 cup cooked wheat berries

Pre-heat oven to 400 F. Mix dry ingredients together, then add applesauce and liquid, then add wheat berries. Spoon into greased muffin tin, bake for twenty minutes or until tops are brown.

These have been my generic food item for the last month or so; they have a lot of protein and you can eat them with pretty much anything. Jam, peanut butter, butter, hummus, curry sauce, whatever.

If you are unfamiliar with the wheat berries concept, they're basically just whole wheat grains. You soak them for two hours, then cook them like bown rice. They can be eaten like rice, too, which I've been doing a lot recently; you can make a large batch in advance and keep them in the fridge for days without having them dry out or stick together. They go surprisingly well with Japanese-style curry or with gomashio.

I assume that oat groats function similarly to wheat berries in recipes like this, but I haven't been able to find any to try it with yet.


- Relatively Healthy Banana Walnut Oatmeal Muffins

1 1/2 cups dry oatmeal
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tbsp brown or "raw" (turbinado/demerara) sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup applesauce
3/4 cup milk/buttermilk/soymilk/whatevermilk
1 medium-sized-to-large banana
1 cup chopped walnuts

Pre-heat oven to 400 F. Mix dry ingredients together (including the sugar). Place applesauce, milk, and banana in blender, and pulse until smooth. Stir into dry ingredients, then add walnuts. Spoon into greased muffin tin, bake for twenty-two minutes or until tops are very brown. (Banana muffins keep much better if they're allowed to form a good dark crust.)

This is basically a breakfast-food version of the booodseees muffins, which I think of as a dessert. They're also more acceptable than the booodseees to people who aren't me, because some weirdos don't like olive oil in their muffins.

Invented because it's too hot to eat actual oatmeal in the mornings. Makes twelve muffins.

Walnuts and cranberries are among the ingredients because they're what I put in my oatmeal - you can easily switch the cranberries for raisins or whatever, add cinnamon and sugar, etc. Despite the presence of the applesauce, they're not sweet if you make them without the cranberries. They actually taste a lot like cornbread.

2 1/4 cups quick oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1/3 cup applesauce
3/4 cups chopped walnuts
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Blend oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in bowl. Add wet ingredients. Allow liquids to soak into oats until individual oats are not distinguishable, about five minutes. Add walnuts and cranberries. Grease muffin tin, spoon mixture in. Bake for twenty minutes or until tops look to be browning. (They won't brown evenly.)

(Have you noticed all my recipes are very boring?)

I made this casserole for the first time tonight, and it came out nicely - though I did have to drain some melted butter off the top at the end.

These cookies I've made twice now, with quick oats rather than oat flour; people keep eating them all, so I guess they're fine.

(I solved my problem earlier by putting rice in the rice cooker and then watching Baccano! until it was done. The internet did not need to tell me to do that; it comes naturally.)

Invented within the last two hours, while trying to figure out what to do with this bag of fava beans. I invent soup frequently in similar circumstances, and most of them turn out badly. I'm happy with this one, though!

Name selected because this soup is very yellow, except for the salt bacon, which is unsurprisingly pink. I think it would be better with frozen fava beans, though of course in that case it would become Yellow and Pink and Green.

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium white onion, diced
1 large baking potato, peeled and diced
6 cups water
2 cups dried fava beans
3 tsp consomme powder (I used this stuff)
some salt bacon
1 tsp marjoram
2 bay leaves

Instructions

1) Heat olive oil in pan. Sautee garlic until slightly brown, then add onions and sautee until translucent.

2) Add water, potato, fava beans, and salt bacon. Bring to boil.

3) Stir in consomme powder, marjoram, and bay leaves. Reduce heat to simmer. Cook for forty-five minutes or until potatoes and beans are soft.

4 cups water
2 tsp instant hon dashi powder
4 tbsp miso (red/akadashi)
3 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced/ground/powdered ginger
2 slices bacon, sliced up into squares
1 scallion
2-6 packets instant ramen (depending on how much broth you feel like using with each block of noodles)

( Read the rest of this entry » )

(Crossposted to SarahPin.com, Dreamwidth, and LiveJournal. You can leave comments at whichever.)

Originally published at I Am Completely Serious. You can comment here or there.

It came out a lot better than last time I made something like this, I think because I put in approximately Way More Than I Thought I Needed quantities of miso, garlic, and black pepper. One should not be conservative with these ingredients.

(Measurements are totally approximate. Also, sane people probably do not eat stuff like this when it’s 90 degrees out?)

( Read the rest of this entry » )