Happy Halloween!

Halloween is still one of my favorite holidays.  I love creating my own costume, getting to dress up and be whoever or whatever I want to be: a rockstar, a spider, Frida Kahlo, a roasting marshmallow...  It's the one day out of the year where you can wear anything you want.  Although, here in San Francisco, people seem to celebrate Halloween all year round with their out-there outfits.  On Halloween weekend, it can be hard to tell if someone is in a costume or just wearing their regular clothes!  That is why I love this city so much. This year, I left my costume designing to the very last minute, so I decided on being something simple: an eggplant.  I had a purple dress and sweater, and tights, and just crafted myself a stem and leaves to wear around my neck.  It was quite elegant, actually, for an eggplant, and healthy too!  I remember trick or treating as a kid, and coming home with bags of candy.  I was allergic to chocolate and milk then, but my mother was nice enough to let me eat a few pieces of candy on Halloween (and I always snuck some more later.)  The best part of the night was trading candy with my friends.  I always wanted the Reese's peanut butter cups, Peppermint Patties, and Kit Kats.  It is has been a long time since I've had any candy, and though I can only handle so much sweet these days, sometimes I crave a Reese's peanut butter cup.  So I made these yummy sugar/wheat/dairy-free peanut butter cups just in time for Halloween. I also tried to make Peppermint Patties, but they turned into a mess.  So stay tuned for the perfect patty recipe!  For now, please enjoy these decadent chocolate peanut butter cups!

Ingredients:

• 8 oz of 100% bitter chocolate
• 1-2 tbs agave nectar
• About 1/8 cup of rice milk
• 1 1/2 cups of peanut butter
• (Optional: 1 more tbs of agave)

Directions:

1. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate and add the agave nectar, stir constantly.
2. The chocolate will thicken from the agave, so thin it down with some rice milk - about 1/8 of a cup.  Just add a little at a time, stir well, and then see how thin it gets.  You want it to be as soft and thin as silky pudding.
3. Line a muffin tin with muffin liners and pour some of the chocolate into each cup.  Use a spoon or spatula to spread the chocolate up along the sides of each muffin liner.  Cover with foil/plastic wrap and place in freezer for about 30 minutes or more.
4. Meanwhile, heat up the peanut butter in the microwave for a minute and then mix together the peanut butter and agave.  (You can also omit the agave in the peanut butter if you want a more salty than sweet treat.) 
5. Take the muffin tin out of the freezer and fill each cup with the peanut butter mixture.  Press each down so it's smooth on top.
6. Re-melt the rest of the chocolate mixture in the double boiler, and pour on top of each peanut butter cup. Smooth down and refreeze for about 30 minutes, covered.
7. Take out and enjoy one of these massively delicious peanut butter cups with a friend!

Best Vegetarian Sushi

Ok, so we all know I die for sushi...and seafood of all kinds...but I love a delicious vegetarian sushi roll any day.  I love experimenting with different combinations of vegetables.  For this roll, I roasted Japanese eggplant and sweet potatoes, along with marinated tofu.  Then I added some steamed kale and fresh avocados, and it was the most hearty and nourishing sushi roll ever.  Though there are many steps to this recipe, it's actually quite simple and low maintenance, especially when you just cook a bunch of rice and roast/steam a bunch of veggies ahead of time.  Then all week long you have the ingredients to make the sushi, which then only takes about 5 minutes to make.

Ingredients 

• 2 cups of brown sushi rice
• 1-2 tbs of sesame oil
• 1 tbs of vinegar- you can use sushi rice vinegar, or I love to use umeboshi (pickled plum) vinegar
• 3 cloves of garlic minced
• 2 tsps of grated ginger
• 1 tbs of maple syrup
• 1/4 cup or so of wheat free soy sauce
• 1 box of extra firm tofu, sliced into thin rectangles
• 2 Japanese eggplants, cut in half length-wise
• 1 large sweet potato, cut into french fry shapes
• 1 head of kale, steamed 
• 1 ripe avocado, sliced
• 4-6 sheets of nori (sushi seaweed)

Directions

1. Cook the brown sushi rice in a rice cooker, or follow the directions on the bag (probably 2 cups of water for 1 cup of rice.)
2. When rice is cooked, mix in the sesame oil and vinegar.  Let rice cool for a few hours, or stick in the fridge, covered for about 25 minutes until cooled.
3. Turn the oven on to 400 degrees F.
4. Mix together the garlic, ginger, maple syrup and soy sauce in a bowl and marinate the tofu in the mixture.
5. While it marinates, spread the eggplant and sweet potato out onto a lined baking sheet, drizzle olive oil, some salt and pepper on top.
6. On another lined baking sheet, lay out the tofu pieces.
7. Bake tofu and vegetables in the oven for about 25 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft and the tofu is slightly caramelized.
8. Once rice, veggies and tofu are all cooked and cooled, you can roll up some sushi! (slice the eggplant into long thin pieces.) 
9. Place one sheet of nori, shiny side down, on a clean work surface or bamboo roller mat.
10. Using a wet spoon or clean wet hands, spread a thin layer of sticky rice on the nori, covering the bottom two thirds of the nori.  Make sure the rice is tightly packed.
11. Lay the vegetables and tofu across the rice near the bottom edge of the nori.
12. Wet the top edge of the nori.  Starting from the bottom side, begin to roll the sushi, trying to keep all the ingredients in the first turn.  As you turn, make sure to keep it tight and gently press the roll, like you are trying to roll a sleeping bag very tightly.  (I don't use a bamboo roller, but you may find it easier.)
13. Once roll is rolled up, let sit for a minute so that the roll sets (start on another roll in the meantime).
14. Using a very sharp and slightly wet knife cut your sushi roll into cute little pieces.
15. Enjoy with wheat-free soy sauce!
16. (For more tips on how to make the perfect sushi roll check this out:  http://jasminshappytummy.blogspot.com/2010/08/i-love-sushi.html) 

Peanut Butter Cookies

I am so grateful that of all the things I am allergic to, peanuts did not make the list.  Peanut butter cookies just speak of childhood to me; and who knows why they have to be stamped with a criss-cross of fork indents, but they just do.  I remember eating them as a kid with a big glass of Eden soymilk (even in 1988 I was drinking soy milk!)  I have been craving peanut butter cookies lately, so I finally baked up a gluten/sugar/dairy free batch.  These cookies turned out so soft and chewy and of course, peanutbuttery!  Hopefully these delicious cookies will bring you back!

Ingredients

• 1 cup gluten free flour (I used garbanzo and brown rice flour)
• 1 1/2 tsps baking powder
• 3/4 cup coconut sugar
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• 2 cups of organic peanut butter
• 1 tbs of honey
• 2 large eggs

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients.
3. Add the peanutbutter, and honey and mix well. 
4. Beat the eggs gently and mix completley into the batter.
5. Roll dough into small circles and press gently onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.
6. Using a fork, gently stamp into the top of each cookie, two times in opposite directions to create the tic/tac/toe board effect!
7. Bake in the oven for 12 or so minutes until golden, but still a little soft.  
8. Let cool and enjoy with a glass of cold rice or soy milk!

Shrimp and Shitake Soba

 

Sometimes life comes together out of pure intention and desire, with no extra effort needed.  Last year I was really wanting a new challenge, to learn new things and to be involved in something inspiring.  I tried applying to a bunch of internships and such, but none of them worked out.  Then one day, I was attending a very inspiring conference put on by an organization that I've always been impressed by.  At the end of the event, I was chatting with one of the board members of this organization and she asked me if I wanted to apply to be on the board.  My answer was an easy, "yes!" So  I applied, and then a week later was accepted to serve on this amazing board.  It was so easy and surprising.  I felt like I had been handed exactly what I was looking for.  Sometimes cooking is like this too.  This week I was imagining making a soba noodle dish with shitake mushrooms and thought shrimp would be perfect for this dish.  To my luck, Whole Foods was having a sale on shrimp, so it was all meant to be.  When I got home from the store, I only had 30 minutes to make and eat dinner before meeting a friend.  So I quickly sliced, and sauteed and stirred and didn't think too much about what I was doing, and the dish turned out perfectly.  Seriously people, this meal took me 20 minutes to make, start to finish.  This is a great dish to make when you're crunched for time, but want something fresh and flavorful.  If you can't find the 100% buckwheat noodles, you could use pad thai rice noodles.  You could also substitute tofu cubes or sliced chicken breast for the shrimp, and bok choy for the spinach, and carrots for the red pepper.  But don't think too hard about it, just follow your instincts and enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 package of 100% buckwheat noodles (make sure there is no wheat in them!)
• 1 cup of shitake mushrooms, sliced
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 10-12 raw shrimp
• 1 bunch of baby spinach, washed
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced into sticks
• olive oil and sesame oil 
• wheat free soy sauce
• sesame seeds

Directions

1. Boil water for soba noodles and cook for about 8 minutes.  Rinse and drain well.
2. Meanwhile, sautee the shitake mushrooms, with olive and sesame oil, in a pan on medium-high heat.
3. When the mushrooms begin to wilt and soften, add the garlic and shrimp.
4. Finally, add the spinach and red peppers on top.
5. Pour a little soy sauce on the noodles, shrimp and veggies,  mix together.
6. Garnish with black sesame seeds!