Amazing Vegan Stir Fry

Prepare to be amazed. Restaurant worthy dish right here! Stir fry is always good, but this stir fry is truly, in a word...amazing. That's really all I have for today. No angry rant about animal rights, no talk of the fact that my birthday is in less than one week (fingers crossed for a small, furry animal companion). Nope, just this awesome-sauce stir fry.

Well, I would like to add that I get unnecessarily excited about my birthday. It's my day to make whatever outrageously grotesque, over-the-top dessert I want. It has to be completely incongruous to a shocking degree. Oh yes, I go for the big leagues. Sometimes I even make more than one!

It's my day to pretty much just jam out to my own beat. Katie all day. Non-stop. That means cooking and grocery shopping (without being rushed), plants are usually involved, and of course most of the day is spent singing out regular everyday conversations to Todd (think New Girl style). And not wearing pants. Obviously. It's clearly the most glorious day of my year. 

This stir fry is straight up amazing. Fresh veggies sauteed in a delicious and easy homemade stir fry sauce marry with baked tofu so golden brown that even the pickiest eaters will love this dish. If you're not vegan or even vegetarian, or hate tofu, or your partner hates tofu...I double-dog-dare you to try this recipe and tell me you didn't like it. Do it. You're going to love it! Trust me. 

Amazing Vegan Stir Fry

Serves 4

Notes: Feel free to add sliced carrots or red pepper in your stir fry. I'm not partial to them in mine, but I know they are classic stir fry additions. Also, really try to find the vacuum packed tofu! If you can't then the kind that comes in the plastic bin can be used, but it will need to be pressed for 30 minutes prior to use. I ate this on it's own, but feel free to serve over rice, quinoa, couscous, or millet. 

• Tofu:
• 1 20 oz. package of vacuum packed extra firm tofu, cubed
• Veggies:
• 1 Tbsp. sesame oil
• 1 cup broccoli florets, chopped
• 1 cup snow peas, halved on a diagonal
• 1 cup canned baby corn, diagonally sliced
• 1 cup asparagus, diagonally sliced
• Sauce:
• 1/4 cup liquid amino acids or soy sauce
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. fresh ginger, minced
• 1 Tbsp. agave nectar or maple syrup
• 1 Tbsp. corn starch
• red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 400 F. Dry off the tofu with a few paper towels then cube into bite size pieces. Coat a baking sheet with a nonstick cooking spray and evenly spread the tofu, so no pieces are overlapping. 

Bake at 400 F for about 35 minutes until the tofu is dry and golden brown. Remove and turn off oven. Set aside until ready to use. 

Meanwhile, prepare the veggies. In a large frying pan or wok, heat the sesame oil over medium-low. Then, add the veggies and saute for about 8 minutes over medium heat, stirring frequently. 

While the veggies are sauteing, whisk together the sauce ingredients in a small bowl or pyrex measuring cup. Then, add to the veggies and stir well to coat. Continue to cook for about 5 minutes, then cover and cook for 3 more minutes or until the broccoli is tender. Add the baked tofu and stir well to combine. 

Serve hot. This stir fry can be eaten alone as I did, or served over rice, quinoa, couscous, or millet. 

Just chair dancing my little butt off while singing my little heart out to this song. Sing with me!

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/102277894" params="color=62ab98&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]

German Word of The Day: Stir fry --> Gemüsepfanne (pronounced: gehmoozeup-fameh) Gemüse means vegetables and Pfanne means pan, cool huh?!

Good Deed of The Day: Have you heard about "soring" with regards to horses? It's where unscrupulous trainers deliberately inflict pain on the horses in order to exaggerate their high-stepping gait to gain unfair competitive advantage at horse shows. They use caustic chemicals, chains, hoof knives and grinders, sharp objects, weighted shoes, and other painful devices and techniques that make it hurt for the horse to step down. Sickening, huh? Let's put a stop to it. Sign the petition, here.

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Simple Black Bean Zucchini Burgers

Sometimes dinner needs to be quick. And easy. Realllll easy, ya dig? Last night was one of those nights. The end of the work week can sometimes be quite tiring, especially knowing there's a busy weekend coming up. So relax, and make these simple burgers with just four ingredients. Zucchini, black beans, flax seed, and some seasonings. Blammy! That's it.

If for some weird reason you still aren't convinced, check out these burgers' sweet stats. A slim 130 calories with 5 grams of healthy black bean and flaxseed fat, 18 complex carbs, 8 grams of fiber (say what?!?), and 7 grams of preferred, plant-based protein. You're impressed. Me too. I normally don't do calorie configuring, but I just couldn't resist. I knew these would be way too awesome on the nutrient scale. Black beans and flax seed? Get outta here, there're some of the healthiest foods around!

That being said, it's very important to have an insane, I'm-gonna-turn-you-vegan, homemade veggie burger recipe in your back pocket. Do not underestimate the power of a mind-blowing homemade vegan burger. I have one of those recipes and it would completely knock your socks off, however, it is super labour intensive. I'm working on keep all the flavor and texture, but making it a bit more user friendly at this time. Then I'll share. 

But this burger? This guy is for when you want something quick, very healthy, and very tasty. Save the laborious, omni-converting burger for when you have the time...and patience. 

Simple Black Bean Zucchini Burgers

Makes 5 patties

Notes: These are soft burgers, they don't really have a "meaty" texture. If you don't have a food processor, the zucchini can be shred by hand. 

• 1 15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 medium zucchini (about 2 cups), shredded
• 1/2 cup ground flax seed
• 1 tsp. steak seasoning
• 1/2 tsp. dried parsley 
• 1/4 tsp. liquid smoke (optional)

In a large bowl, add the black beans and mash them with the back of a rounded measuring cup.  

Shred the zucchini (I did this in a flash with my food processor) and add it to the beans. 

Add the remaining ingredients and mix with your hands, until very well combined. Allow to rest for 10 minutes. 

Coat a large frying pan with nonstick cooking spray and heat over low. Meanwhile, form the mixture into 5 patties.

Fry each patty a few minutes on one side, until browned. Flip and brown the other side. They can be fried in batches if they don't all fit at the same time.  

Serve hot and however you like. We did ketchup and whole grain mustard, but I bet a vegan BBQ sauce would be good as well!

[yumprint-recipe id='105']You best be listening to this song. Dad, if you read this post (I'm still not entirely sure if he reads the blog or not), you'll probably enjoy this song.

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/67807103" params="color=59ab7a&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]

German Word of The Day: Beans --> Bohnen (pronounced: bone-in)

Good Deed of The Day: This one absolutely broke my heart. Fun fact: Deer is my favorite animal! Sign this petition by former Cornell students to stop the trapping of deer who are then shot in the brain with metal rods. I get that deer are overpopulated and yadda yadda. I get it. But hummm, I wonder who caused that?? Maybe people need population control. Hey, I'm not sayin'...but...you know. Really though? Is this the best way to handle it?

Creamy Butternut Chickpea Millet + Cool News

So, I have something pretty cool to share. It's my vegan story! The beautiful Kristy over at Keepin' It Kind is so wonderful to have provided me with the opportunity to share my journey to vegandom. Is that a word? Vegandom. I think it should be. Well, it is now. If you've ever wanted to know more about my little story, now you can! So head on over and check it out. Plus, there's a few pics of me with some pretty sweet pups.  Just about every night I have a pretty intense internal battle about whether to make dessert for dinner or an actual, proper dinner. Last night it was a particularly harrowing spar. However, dinner won. It usually does, but only because I know if I don't make any dinner then I'll have to eat falafel chips and hummus for lunch the next day...which I totally did yesterday. I'm not complaining about such a delicious lunch, but really, it's more of a snack. Then, I'm so hungry by the end of the work day that I come home and binge on a downright shocking amount of Endangered Species chocolate. They have these new ones that are creme filled you guys! And VEGAN! Actually, now that I think about it...maybe I should just do this everyday. 

Completely unrelated to food or being vegan, Todd and I watched Frozen last night. New favorite movie! Well, I dunno. Could I demote Monsters, Inc.? I'm entirely not sure. But, we laughed throughout the entire thing and also Josh Gad is my favorite person to ever walk the Earth so ya' know, pretty much best movie ever. Plus it's all about snow and winter and that's kind of my jam...living in Alaska and all, ya' dig?

Okay, back to this dish.

You know how everyone loves chickpeas and buttersquash? Yes. And you know how everyone's getting on all up on the millet bandwagon? Yes. Well now combine those three luscious ingredients! Bam! Fluffy millet soaks in a warm, herbed butternut squash sauce dotted with protein-packed chickpeas. All ready to go in about 30 minutes. Now that's a dinner worth forgoing dessert for. 

Creamy Butternut Chickpea Millet

Serves 6

• Millet:
• 1 1/2 cups millet, dry
• 3 cups water
• pinch of salt
• Aromatics:
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 medium carrot, diced small
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced small
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced small
• 1 whole dried bay leaf
• 1 Tbsp. fresh ginger, minced
• 1/2 Tbsp. whole cumin seeds
• 1/4 tsp. ground sage
• 1/4 tsp. ground pepper
• 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
• grating of nutmeg
• Sustenance:
• 32 oz. butternut squash soup
• 2 15 oz. cans of chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
• 1 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
• 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar

Notes: Quinoa, rice, or couscous can be used in place of the millet if you wish. If you don't have whole cumin seeds, feel free to use about 1/2 tsp. of ground cumin. I used Pacifica brand of butternut squash soup. 

In a medium saucepan, toast the dry millet over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes, until fragrant. Stirring occasionally. Then, add the water and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, then cover partially and reduce to a simmer. Allow to simmer for 15 minutes, then stir and remove from heat. Keep covered and let sit until ready for use, at least 10 minutes. 

While the millet is cooking, in a large soup pot heat the oil over medium then add the aromatic ingredients. Saute for about 10 minutes, until the carrots are tender and the onions are browned. 

Meanwhile, in a blender combine 3/4 cup of the butternut squash soup, 3/4 cup of the chickpeas, as well as the nutritional yeast and the vinegar. Blend on high until smooth. Add this mixture to the sauteed vegetables as well as the remainder of the soup and chickpeas. Stir well to combine, and remove the bay leaf. 

This dish can be served two ways. Either place a scoop of the cooked millet into a shallow soup bowl and a ladle of sauce around it or, combine the millet and sauce and serve that way. Serve hot. 

Come jam with me. Don't deny yourself...

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/106878552" params="color=88d0ab&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]

"He stares so politely I'm best behaving when he's walking with me, walking with me Oh, he likes taking photos in black and white They're upon his walls, on his walls"

German Word of The Day: Millet --> Hirse (pronounced: hillseh)

Good Deed of The Day: For real? Ugh. Sign this petition to tell UK labs to stop puppy and kitten experiments. Only takes 5 seconds, promise. 

Oh and also...

Dang that was a pretty involved post today. Lots of stuff going on, but guess what? It's pretty much Friday, peeps! 

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