Maggie's Vegan Korean Beef/Rice Bowls

Hi friends. It's been a while. A looooooong while. The longest while between posts on my blog since I started it. So, here's the LesVegan scoop. 

1. Late last spring, our dean announced she was leaving. She and the president worked on figuring out who could take on parts of the dean role, as it would have been impossible to find a permanent person to start by July first. Two colleagues and I were asked (and agreed) to split the role. That's taken a lot of time and has been a steep learning curve. 
2. I've been, like most folks, bogged down by the emotional weight associated with swirling currents of a global pandemic, political uncertainty, and civil unrest (for good reason, when we look at continued pressure for racial justice in the US). 
3. Shana and I separated and are finalizing a divorce. The separation was sudden and the number of adjustments one makes after being with the same person for 16.5 years leads to a lot of mental and emotional work. I'm thankful to have supportive friends and family and that I'd already had a well-established relationship with a therapist. I'm well-loved and thriving. 

All of those things, plus more, led to shifts in my cooking and not enough time or energy to keep posting recipes. BUT, I think I'm back (at least sporadically), even though all of the things above are still happening. 

Thus, here's a new recipe that's easy and speedy and delicious: vegan Korean beef & rice bowls. I was inspired trying to use up food I had in my house, which included a weirdly large number of bags of Gardein Beefless Ground. I didn't want tacos or sloppy joes or chili, so I turned to the internet, found some ideas, and a delicious dinner was the happy result. I hope it's a great weeknight meal for you!

Lazy Dinner Teriyaki Tips

Can you believe I haven't posted a "Lazy Dinner" post since 2017?  With COVID shifting schedules and working from home, it's not like we haven't been eating lazy dinners... so I'm not sure why I haven't posted an new one! 

Anyway, this recipe is a a quintessential Lazy Dinner. It's really quick (relying on a faux meat product), super easy, and delicious. Plus, its versatile! If you don't want Asian flavors one evening, use the same technique but switch to different flavors. 

Maggie's Lentil Barley Soup

IT'S SOUP SEASON!!

Soup season is the best season because soups are the best. I don't think anyone who has spoken with me in cooler weather and/or visited this blog is surprised at that statement. 

This particular soup emerged because I'd been digging past all the lentils in our pantry when my hand landed on a jar of pearled barley. Obviously, the first thing I thought of was soup (I mean, I'd just been touching lentils!), but I felt *certain* I had a recipe for barley soup already on my blog. Turns out I do, but it uses quick barley, not pearled, and in looking at the recipe, it just wasn't the flavors I wanted. Plus, it's very clear that I love lentils in soup. After looking at a huge number of possible ideas on the internet, what emerged was a blend of the recipes I'd looked at and the flavors I was dreaming out. Healthy, hearty, and happy-making, this soup is going to be in regular rotation. 

Maggie's Self-Quarantine Lentil Soup

The world is a little anxiety-provoking at the moment, hmmm? A global pandemic, a weak and uncoordinated response from the US government, and unheard of rates of unemployment; any one of these would be enough to produce anxiety, so all three is a doozy.

Shana and I have both been self-quaratined since March 13. She has been sick enough that much of the time, us being at home didn't matter. She was sleeping 17 hours a day and even when awake she found the walls and ceiling entertainment enough. She's on the mend, but just at the time that we're running out of fresh veggies.

Given our general lack of fresh veggies and the need for comfort, dinner last night called for soup. On one hand, it's odd to be a creative cook during a pandemic. On the other hand, necessity is the mother of invention. The soup below is simple, using only ingredients that stay good for long periods. It's also healthy, with veggies and protein. If you have a frozen chunk of bread to thaw & warm, it's a great meal for trying times. Take care of yourselves. <3

Protein Breakfast Cookies

Shana and a group of friends have started a once-a-month brunch. When she told me about the first one, I'd already planned another morning event, meaning I didn't attend. Coming home afterward, she proudly announced that we were hosting the second month. Fast forward and we are into month three.

Here's the problem: I'm running out of brunch recipes.

Let me clarify. I'm running out of brunch recipes that travel well and will be more or less a meal for me and Shana, as no one else in this group is vegan. I've got a few more ideas in mind, but I'll take any ideas you've got!

For tomorrow's brunch, I'm bringing these high-protein breakfast cookies. These were a recipe my sister-in-law was making when she was following a paleo diet. Shana tried them and loved them, so got the recipe for me. With a minor edit they became vegan and are absolutely delicious. There was a while when I was making a double-batch on the weekend so we could both grab a couple for breakfast during week. I just might have to start doing that again...

Maggie's Rice Skillet Dinner

If you're friends with me and Shana on Facebook, you've likely seen her tag me under a recipe or share something to my wall with "veganize this?" or "make this for me?" and nothing else. As it turns out, she does that outside of social media, too. Years and years ago, Shana used to have a subscription to a magazine that no longer exists, but it often included recipes that were easy and quick to prepare and targeted at families with children. Recipes would get torn out of the magazine and excitedly waved in my line of sight. Sometimes they were made right away, but often they went into the giant stack of recipes I want to try.

When looking for a new dish to make a while ago, I stumbled upon one of those torn magazine-page recipes. It looked good, especially with the tweaks I was envisioning to make it both vegan and a one-dish dinner. With approval from Shana to try something new, the rice skillet dinner was a go and resounding success! Nothing fancy, just warm comforting goodness for when you're short on time but still want a delicious meal.

Oh, and make sure to use your largest skillet! A 12" is a necessity (or cut the recipe in half)!

Smoky Quinoa and Vegetable Soup

Full of good-for-you and easy-to-find ingredients - such as sweet potato, quinoa, and peas - plus flavors that are out of this world delicious (smoked paprika for the win), this amazing soup has been on regular rotation at our house for a while. Plus, even though the calendar says it's late March, we've been dealing with below-normal temps and even snow days causing cancelled schools! With all of that, it's no wonder this soup has made regular occurrences in our meal plans. But let me explain how we even got to this recipe.

First, Shana figured out about a year ago that she looooooves quinoa. She wants to eat it all the time in any form she can. Second, we had a dinner a while ago with our friends the Thompsons. They cooked a version of this soup from America's Test Kitchen's vegetarian cookbook. You can even see a video of the original recipe here. It was their idea to use smoked paprika. Third, we had family stay with us a while ago on their drive from PA to WI. We figured this would be an easy dinner for everyone (minus the youngest, who doesn't really like dinners and had PB&J). It was at this meal that I subbed in the sweet potato, because when I went to grab the white potatoes I was *sure* we had, I found them curiously absent. But the sweet potatoes were a perfect substitution.

All of this adds up to a hearty and healthy deep red soup - due to the smoked paprika and tomato paste - filled with vibrant colors and textures. We've fed this soup to so many folks and everyone has loved it! In addition to everyone above, it's been a hit at our monthly vegan potluck and wowed our friend Max's parents when they were in town. It's a bowl of warming winter magic for your tired taste buds.

The red color is from both the smoked paprika and the tomato paste.

Maggie's Vegan Beer Bread

A while ago I was craving some bread, but I didn't want to knead and wait for dough to rise. While I could have made a sweet bread, like zucchini or apple spice, that wasn't where my taste buds were leading. In other words, I wanted fresh, homemade bread in no longer than it took to bake in my oven. After some creative, but ultimately fruitless, googling, I acquiesced to my breadless state.

Fast forward a week or so, to just before the Super Bowl, when I remembered that beer bread is a thing! This "aha!" moment meant that, with a good recipe, I could have a quick and non-sweet bread PLUS something to bring to the Super Bowl party we were attending.

Turning my attention to a different set of google search results, I found all sorts of recipes. Following my usual tendency, I picked one as an idea to build on, added my own twist and elements of other recipes, then popped the dough in the oven and crossed my fingers. What emerged from my oven was nothing short of magic. It was devoured at the Super Bowl party. I made a loaf a week or so ago and it didn't last long with just Shana and I eating it. I no longer have to exist in a breadless state.

Saffron-Garlic Rice

Fall semester finals were last week and final grades were due on Tuesday. The nearly instantaneous flexibility that comes with the end of the semester generally means I can cook more creative meals and/or more time-intensive meals with some frequency. Thus, this week we've had all sorts of fun dishes, including chickpeas romesco, which we haven't had in ages!

To be honest, I'm not sure why we don't make this saffron-garlic rice more often. It's an easy recipe that involves mostly hands-off cooking, and the flavor is seriously good. I could see this rice as a side dish for a fancy dinner party, an option for a night you want something other than plain rice, or our favorite way to eat it - under chickpeas romesco. Regardless, we should eat it more and you should eat it, too! While it does take a bit of time, I'll remind you that it's easy and that your taste buds will thank you.

See that little spot of red? That's a saffron thread!

Lazy Dinner Paustages (Pasta and Vegan Sausages)

Sometimes a Lazy Dinner is just what you need.

The past few weeks have been incredibly busy for us. For two weeks straight, we had something on the calendar for every single night (and weekend days, too). Part of the busyness includes the classes Shana is taking, part of the busyness was due to the festivities surrounding the inauguration of Earlham's 18th President, and part of the busyness is that we like to see our friends. I loved all of our activities, but I also love that things have calmed down just a little, and we have the occasional evening with flexibility. Tonight was one of those nights.

We'd planned for easy meals all week (mostly), just because I knew that I wasn't going to want to spend a lot of energy on making dinners after all that we'd been doing. This dinner, paustages, was one we'd not had in a long time. It was quick and delicious; just perfect for hectic nights.

You may be wondering why we call this dinner paustages. Well, it's mostly because I love playing with words. While not a perfect example (we took some liberty with letter order), our made up dinner name is essentially a portmanteau, which is the combination of two words and their meanings. Common examples are things like smog (smoke + fog) or brunch (breakfast + lunch). Plus, paustages is just fun to say!

Southwestern Salad with Cumin-Lime Vinaigrette

It's a long story, but a few weeks ago we were gifted with a number of salad kits - you know, the kind that have all the ingredients inside the bag and all you have to do is mix them together.

While the free salads were nice, none of the included salad dressings were vegan-friendly. I decided I'd make up my own dressings to coordinate with the ingredients in the bags. My first attempt at a dressing for one of the salads was a smash hit with me, Shana, and some friends of ours who just had a baby (we took them lunch). I made it again with the second kit and it was just as good.

We've been all out of the salad kits for a while, but I had a craving for this salad. After a quick search of my local grocery store, I realized I could get all the ingredients and could just make my own! This simple,healthy, and delicious salad is great for warm summer days.

Vegan Teriyaki Boats

On summer nights, I can't bring myself to heat up my kitchen. But as hot days and warm nights stretch on, I also get sick of grilling dinners and Shana wouldn't be satisfied with continuous salads. This means a recipe that can satisfy the requirements of not heating the kitchen, not using the grill, and not being a salad is a huge win for our summer eating.

This particular recipe was in a special recipe collection called "Best Vegan Recipes" published by Vegetarian Times magazine (which now exists in an altered state under the title Vegetarian Today; I no longer subscribe). Shana and I had been standing in line at a grocery store and saw this special collection. While waiting to check out, I perused it and found so many recipes I wanted to make that we ended up purchasing it.

These teriyaki boats are ridiculously fast and easy - so much so that Shana has made them - and they are delicious and healthy. Everyone we've served them to has enjoyed them and I can see them being quite flexible, if you wanted to add/remove ingredients.  Serve them as a lunch, a light dinner, or even as an appetizer (see Helpful Hints).

Lazy Dinner Quesadillas

It's been quiet around these here parts, huh? I've got all sorts of backlogged recipes, plus, when spring rolls around I get sick of everything we've been eating over the winter, but still no blog posts. Sad for me (and you!).

But, here's a quick and easy Lazy Dinner (or lunch or snack or appetizer or whatever) to tide you all over until I actually get around to posting real things: quesadillas.

Lazy Dinner Quesadillas were something I would periodically eat when Shana was still working in Indianapolis. Without a plan to come home and make/eat dinner, I would often stay at school until mid-evening and then come home famished. I needed something that would fill my tummy in as little time as possible. By relying on a few convenience foods (e.g., vegan cheese shreds and store-bought tortillas), all I needed was a veggie or two (or three) to throw into the mix. Into a hot pan went my ingredients and a satisfying dinner emerged in under 5 minutes.

This particular LD Quesadilla was prompted by just a few caramelized onions left over from mujaddara we had with friends a few nights ago. The onions are soooooo good that we just couldn't waste them. Adding a few ripped spinach leaves and some vegan cheese and I was all set.

Vegan Viands #19: Maggie's Vegan Ranch Chex Mix

Every late fall/early winter growing up, my mom would make chex mix. It was a frequent snack and even more frequent gift - going to teachers, neighbors, and friends. The smell and taste of that chex mix is unmistakable. It is one of those recipes that is so easy and delicious, taking just a bit of patience for a long, slow bake and seemingly longer cool. Although her recipe wasn't vegan, it was easily veganizable, meaning that I make my own every year.

Because of the ubiquity of my mom's chex mix, I thought that was the only way to take the on-their-own unremarkable cereals and make them into something magical.

As it turns out, I thought wrong.

Growing up, Shana often had a ranch-flavored chex mix. While similar in idea, the chex mix in Shana's recollection involved a ranch seasoning packet and oil, no bake time, and thus, no cooling time. This fall, when I expressed an interest in making my version, Shana requested that I attempt to make hers. After some googling, including to assess the ingredients of a ranch packet (so not vegan), I made an attempt. It was...not right. Fine, but not right. After some discussion, I made another version and brought it with us on a trip to see all our best friends. That version was delicious - not to mention gone in no time once we arrived.

So, if you're a vegan adult with memories of a ranch-style chex mix, look no further. This takes less than 5 minutes to prepare and will last a bit longer than that if you make sure to hide some from the masses.

MVK Savory Roasted Carrots

Look - a real CSA post!!! We've been getting some AMAZING veggies from our wonderful CSA out of Christopher Farm. As it's very early in the growing season, we've gotten mostly greens. However, we've also gotten a ton of carrots due to the hoop houses at the farm. We eat carrots in soups and in salads, but that hasn't been enough to eat through the carrots. I was talking to my sister about this the other day and she gave me a great idea.

Recently, my sister started working at a restaurant called Mill Valley Kitchen. She is really enjoying the way the restaurant engages with and thinks about food. When I mentioned all of our carrots, she said that I could try to make something on the menu there: carrots marinated in a savory marinade and then roasted quickly in their wood fired pizza oven. I have never eaten these carrots and I certainly don't have a wood fired pizza oven, but I figured I'd give it a go. I am so glad I did, because these carrots were ridiculously delicious. Even if you don't like cooked carrots, you will like these (says Shana). Seriously, eat them now.

Lazy Dinner Not-Pigs in Blankets

Even though spring is supposedly on the way, the first two and half months of the year are always tricky for Shana and I when it comes to planning dinners. Our best laid meal plans are often dramatically destroyed by Mother Nature. We'll have planned a lovely dinner just to have a major snowstorm force Shana to stay in Indianapolis. Thus, I'm more often trying to figure out random things for me to eat (e.g., the other night I had Alice Salad and mini tater tots, simply because I had all of that on hand). Luckily, I've got a number of Lazy Dinners that are easy to do.

This is another one of those dinners where I don't remember how it started. Maybe we saw someone else eating them. Or maybe I saw a non-vegan recipe and decided to veganize it. Or maybe something else happened that was equally trivial. Whatever the reason, these not-pigs in blankets are SO easy I feel badly calling them a recipe. But I guess that makes them a perfect Lazy Dinner (or game-watching food or snack).

Now, before you go all crazy and start making these all the time, I just want to say up front that these are not - I repeat, NOT - the most healthy thing for you to eat. They rely on heavily processed fake meat and high-in-fat bread-in-a-can. Obviously that means they're delicious. It also obviously means don't eat them all the time! As a occasional Lazy Dinner, they're great.

Vegan Christmas Wreath Cookies

Every family has holiday traditions. In my family, we have a LOT of holiday traditions. We have traditions for where we go when, who we see when, how to open presents, what we eat when, and of course, what cookies we make.

Mom making wreaths in 2012

One of our traditional holiday cookies we call "wreath cookies." They are the most simple cookies (essentially like rice-crispie treats), but my mom made them every year. When we would get together with various groups of people over the holidays, we would ALWAYS be told to bring wreath cookies. Although other people made them, most people said that my mom's were the best. I don't know why they were the best, but they always were. Maybe it was the deep green color (there's a lot of research telling us that color matters in food perceptions!), maybe it was simply that her making them was tradition, or maybe it was that she clearly loved that other people loved them. Although this is our first Christmas without her, she was too weak to make them last year, so my sister took up the mantle. For the past 5 years or so, I've also been making a batch of vegan wreath cookies, just so that I could have my own taste of tradition.

These cookies take only about 15 minutes to make, but then take a while to set. In addition, given the food coloring, expect green everywhere (your fingers as you make them, your tongue when you eat them, and anywhere else the food goes*). But, these are a quick and festive cookie, so I think the green is worth it.

Lazy Dinner "Turkey" Club

I'm teaching a May Term class for the first time right now (May Terms are a single class taught over 16 days). Since I've never taught a class like this, I had no idea how much work it would be. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving the class and my students (they are such a great bunch!), I'm just more busy and tired than I anticipated I would be after the semester ended. In addition, my busyness is overlapping with an increase in temperatures, which always makes me not want to eat any of the things we've been eating over the winter. Hot weather foods are hard.

Tonight, we opted to deviate from our meal plan, as neither one of us was interested in cooking or eating our planned dinner. Instead, we had Shana's all time favorite food from her college dining hall: "turkey" clubs. We actually started eating these sandwiches a while ago when Shana suddenly realized that we had all the vegan ingredients to make this sandwich. Most likely, it was Shana's discovery that vegan mayonnaise is delicious. In fact, I was admonished to tell you all that Shana has "very strong feelings" about vegan mayo. Actually, most people who try it think it's as good (or better) than non-vegan mayo. I don't feel as strongly as she does, but then again, I never really ate mayo in my pre-vegan days.

This is the ultimate in Lazy Dinners because the only cooking you need to do is the "bacon" and toasting the bread. Other than that, you just slap stuff together. Anyway, since I said I was busy, enough blabbering, here's the food!

Lazy Dinner Fancy Ramen

I am just finishing up what has been one of the most overwhelming semesters I've ever had. Answering a friend the other day who inquired about how I was feeling, I responded with "ultrawhelmed." (And to be honest, I'm not really done, but next week is finals week and prepping for other things, so I have new/different tasks in which to engage.) This semester is the main reason for my major absence from this blog. To be honest, we've not even been sticking to out meal plan as much as we would normally, as there have been a number of nights where I've just been too busy or tired or both to cook (and Shana gets home too late usually).

In addition to this semester, Shana and I drove home from Chicago today after a 40-hour visit (I was there for a conference) and we had to clean up our house because tomorrow night is the semi-annual Minion Dinner. We've got 7 students coming over tomorrow night for a dinner of soups, salads, and breads (and cookies!!). So, when we got home, we had to clean and go grocery shopping to prepare for tomorrow, which didn't leave a lot of time for dinner. 

Because of all of that, tonight's dinner was another perfect lazy dinner: fancy ramen. The only reason we call this "fancy" ramen is because we put something other than just the ramen noodles in the pot. Because it's ramen, this dinner is SUPER fast and easy, plus it's pretty cheap even with the added ingredients. As I've talked about before (see the Helpful Hints), there is only one easily obtainable brand and flavor of ramen that has a vegan flavor packet.

Vegan Viands #16: Garlicky Garbanzo Gobblers

This week while meal planning, I decided that I was bored with everything we've been eating. Subsequently, 50% of the meals we're eating this week will be new. I also made a new dinner last night, though it's not quite blog-worthy. I'm hoping that at least one of the three new meals will show up here, as I've been a blogging slacker. (Seriously, this semester has been rough.)

Unfortunately, our first new meal isn't until Wednesday (then Thursday and Saturday, too), which didn't really help my food boredom. So, I went digging through the stacks of recipes I have sitting around just waiting to be tried and found a simple snack food that I could serve as an appetizer while a friend came over to watch some basketball with us.

These crispy chickpeas* are easy and delicious, and can be seasoned any way you'd like (a simple google search will lead you to a crazy number of flavoring ideas). Plus, using canned chickpeas makes the prep time practically non-existent.