Monday, March 17, 2008

Eating Green: Mini Food Journal

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I've decided to do a mini food journal today to record my Irish (and not so Irish but at least green) eatings. I do believe I have some Irish blood in me, though I am mostly English and Scottish. But John is half Irish, 2nd generation American, so there is definitely a reason to make it somewhat authentic for him. You'll see later what I have planned for dinner....

8:20am
But first, the breakfast that made me late for work. You guessed it, irish oatmeal!! (aka steel cut oats). I couldn't think of anything green to add to these, so it's topped with agave nectar, bananas, and frozen raspberries. It's sticking to my bones right now. Oh, and do you like our crocheted green shamrock? That's from my sister-in-law. Isn't it cute? I really need to learn to crochet. More updates as the day goes on, I need to get to work now.


12:15pm
Lunch time!! Which usually means leftovers for me at my desk. Over the weekend I made a tofu scramble with Mori Nu tofu. Usually I use the refridgerated kind, but John wanted to experiment because the aseptic package has fewer calories. We discovered this was mostly water since the tofu cooked down to about half the starting amount. Oh well, still tasted fine. So this isn't really Irish, but it's very green! Additions include asparagus, swiss chard, mushrooms, onion, and pesto. Wrap it in a whole wheat pita and you've got yourself a meal. Over lunch today I made my shopping list for after work: raisins, Earth Balance buttery sticks, and more swiss chard. Any guesses as to what I'm making?
6:30pm
For dinner, I wanted to have one of John's more traditional St Patrick's Day foods, Irish Soda Bread. (you were right, chocolate covered vegan! the chard was for another part of dinner) I veganized a recipe that has been passed down in John's family, my only modifications were to use non bone-char sugar, soymilk, and nonhydrogenated shortening. I followed cakespy's advice and soaked my raisin in sugar water, yielding a plumper, moister raisin when baked. This stuff is hard to beat when freshly baked with a few pats of Earth Balance.

The rest of the meal was a bit less traditional, but one component is still typical Irish fare. I made veganyumyum's version of colcannon (you were right too, amy!). My modifications were using blue potatoes, swiss chard instead of kale, and tempeh bacon instead of seitan. I left the skins on the potatoes, which gave a nice texture. The saltiness of the tempeh was the perfect contrast to the creamy potatoes. We have lots of this leftover. On the side were some sauteed apples, which ended up getting stored in a tupperware because the soda bread and colcannon were so filling. But they'll be yummy warmed up with some vanilla soy ice cream. Or maybe even for breakfast. Still one more treat coming your way this evening. Hopefully I'll have some room to eat it, otherwise you may just get the photograph.
9:00pm
And finally, dessert!! These are neither green nor Irish, but they are super fudgy and rich. Yesterday I made a batch of the crumb topped brownies from My Sweet Vegan (after oogling them on other blogs such as overflowing with awesome ). Oh my, I like to think that I am one of those that has endless amounts of room for sweets, but these brownies fill you up. The crumb topping adds a fun crunch. Oh, and can you see the little face on the corner in the center of the photo (down in the fudgy part of the brownie)? Hopefully it's not just me.
Hope everyone enjoyed eating, drinking, and wearing green today! Maybe this post will help give me a little luck of the Irish.

33 comments:

J said...

Happy St. Patrick's day!

I am going to have to try steel cut oats, I've never had them and the blogosphere all seems to be on to something that I'm not as you all are blogging about it all the time. :-)

Anonymous said...

Yummy! I love steel cut oats. =) I added Hemp Protein Powder to mine to make it green. It was really neat!! Unfortunately I did that on Saturday because today isn't technically St. Patty's Day, hehe.

Sheree' said...

Happy St.Patricks day! I too am having oats and maple syrup. Today is our 31st anniversary! Sadly I am at work and dear hubby is at home. I can't wait to see your Irish dinner creation! Our dinner will be tomato soup since DH is having some dental work done and soft foods will be on the menu for a few days. I will have to do our anniversary and St.Patricks meal in a few days. :o)

Anke said...

mmmh, oatmeal with frozen raspberries, my favorite :-)

and I love this crocheted shamrock. crochet shamrocks seem to be da bomb lately (hannah of bittersweet featured one, too)

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Happy St. Patty's Day!!!

What a great way to start the day... and I'm excited to see what else you post about later :o).

Billy said...

I have a bag of steel cut oats I bought a while ago, but haven't yet tried. I should try those soon.

BTW, I replied to your comment regarding WA state using dogs to hunt cougars. I replied over on my blog.

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Ummm... Irish soda bread? Oh no wait, it must be something else due to the swiss chard. I give up!

Anke said...

you're making ants in a boat and pasta with swiss chard? funny, I just posted a recipe with swiss chard.

and as to the silken tofu: I always make my scramble with silken mori nu, yes, it cooks down to half, but it turns out deliciously tender and, dare I say it? egg-like. :-)

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!! that tofu scrambe looks so good.

Anonymous said...

are you making colcannon?!

Animal-Friendly said...

Ah ha! So that's what you had planned for dinner! The soda bread looks awesome. I've never had it but always secretly wanted to make it. I just forgot this years- oops! Oh well, gives me something for next year!

I can't wait for whatever treat is coming later tonight. I'm sure I'll be checking often for an update

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Amanda, you SO win the prize for eating festively/green - love it!! Happy St. Patrick's Day :0)

bazu said...

Happy St. Patrick's day to you guys! You ate wonderfully- I was craving colcannon, but ran out of ingredients (I'm so disorganized!) But seeing yours makes me crave it all the more- maybe some belated colcannon? Your tofu scramble looks awesome, too. And yes, your brownie definitely has a face! But I'd eat it anyway- hee hee.

P.S. I sent you my email address through Flickr, you can write me through that if you want!

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

Irish pride!

Cakespy said...

OK, if all soda bread looked like that maybe it wouldn't need to be smothered with sugar like mine. :-) That tofu scramble looks simply killer! I adore tofu scrambles (they have a good one at Julia's when you're in Seattle!). And finally, dear me, I DO see the face. (!)

CBrownColors said...

oh wow. Awesome Blog!!!

Chessa said...

I totally see the face! But then I think all brownies smile at me in spirit. ;)

Way to live it up irish style! I almost completely forgot what day it was until I noticed everyone at the gym wearing those "Kiss me, I'm Irish" T-shirts to work out. I'm so out of it.

Animal-Friendly said...

I do see the face in the brownies! Well, kinda.....either way, they look very fudgy- YUM

Vegan Girl (Roni Seabury) said...

MMM Yummy, wish I was at your house on St. Patricks Day. Those Fudgy Wudgy Blueberry Brownies I made are long gone and down the hatch. They were very good with Vegan ice cream.

Vegan Girl (Roni Seabury) said...

MMM Yummy, wish I was at your house on St. Patricks Day. Those Fudgy Wudgy Blueberry Brownies I made are long gone and down the hatch. They were very good with Vegan ice cream.

Theresa said...

Everything looks really, really good. I just had porridge with bananas and frozen raspberries yesterday, and your photo is making me crave it again. And those brownies look intense!

I like to soak my raisins in hot tea, probably does the same thing as sugar water, but then Andy drinks the tea after the raisins come out!

J said...

I loved your picture food journal! How fun! Okay, I think now I officially have to try those brownies. They look awesome!

julie hasson said...

Everything looks so delicious! What fun and festive food.

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Woo hoo! I'm such a good guesser ;o).

You always have the BEST holiday celebrations, Vegan Noodle!

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BitterSweet said...

Looks like a delicious day! I especially hope that you liked the brownies. :)

Anonymous said...

Oh my! How have I missed that brownie recipe? That is so next on my list!

Anke said...

try soaking your raisins in RUM - you'll be surprised :-)

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

Oooh, yummy! I wish I'd been home to make soda bread!

Sarah P said...

I made colcannon once before I knew I was allergic to potatoes, but I made it with green cabbage, whose color disappeared completely and left me with a big pot of beige mush. It tasted good, though...

yours is much prettier ^_^

Liz Ranger (Bubble Tea for Dinner) said...

yay steel cut oats! they are pretty rib-sticky. X)

and your colcannon sounds incredible, I'll have to give a variation on that a go. (and as for luck, well, we get what we put out and I think you'll be just fine, ie; showered with irish blessings!)

vko said...

what fun for St. Patty's day!

aTxVegn said...

A whole day of St. Patty's food - nice! I feel better about having made orange colcannon after seeing your purple version. And those brownies look soooo good. I'm dying ot make them.