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.

[yumprint-recipe id='107'][notelr code="amazon53448ea38e9303.40829434" type="amazon" size="800" color="light"]

ChocoCoco Strawberry-Banana Brownie Bites

When Todd and I first decided to do an elimination diet to try to help alleviate his Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), gluten was the first thing to go. We wanted so badly for gluten to be a sort of scapegoat for his flare-ups. At the suggestion of a co-worker, we had high hopes that eliminating it would really help. However, the lack of gluten didn't make a different from him at all. Regardless, I am eternally grateful for that trial period. That's what really got us to look into diet and how it can affect RA.  What followed the gluten trial was the elimination of meat and dairy, two of the biggest dietary triggers for RA. Google "Rheumatoid Arthritis and diet" and that's what you'll find. Avoid meat and dairy. So, that's what we did. And boy did it help. Then, I discovered nutritionfacts.org and I cannot tell you how instrumental that website was to our vegan journey and still is! I researched eggs, as essentially that was the only animal product we were consuming at that time. I had no idea how inflammatory they were and we eliminated them from our diet immediately. Being completely vegan relieved his worst RA symptoms incredibly. We were both so surprised at how substantially diet impacted him, with regards to the arthritis.

I became very interested in a vegan diet due to the benefits that myself and especially Todd experienced, that I began to research nutrition and food every free minute I had. That's when I really discovered the horrors that are inflicted upon animals, the environment, and surprisingly our own bodies with implementation of an omnivorous diet. I was shocked. 

*Reader Discretion Advised - Strong Language and The Truth* What scares me the most is how our food animal friends come to be on our plates. I can't even really admit that I turned a blind eye to it all, I just simply didn't have all the facts. I suspect that's how most people go through their dietary life and that's very upsetting. The meat and dairy industries work tirelessly to hide their transgressions. Plus, don't you know how hipster bacon is you guys!? I'm not sure about you, but I (along with the rest of the world) yearn for fried, decaying pig carcass strips on EVERYTHING.

At least try to make the connection. Or, read this story on how dead piglets are ground up into a "smoothie" and fed to their mothers. If you still want bacon armed with that little piece of knowledge gold...that's f*cked up. That's a blind eye. Hey, sometimes even I have to get all serious and bitchy up in here.

People! That's really happening. That's not vegan propaganda. Pigs are held in such monstrously, horrible conditions because of our insane demand for bacon and pork, that this is now what has to be implemented to keep other pigs from getting sick. If that completely disgusts you gastronomically (and hopefully ethically), sign the petition at the bottom of this post. Great, now I ruined my day. 

Anyways, I bet you're asking what in the hell my angry little story has to do with these brownie bites. Well, they are made with coconut flour. Which is gluten free. Yes, we're back to the very top of the post now. I can hear my dad now, "Get to the point, Katie." I tend to feel the need to explain everything. You see, the fact that gluten never bothered Todd, means that we have an abundance of different gluten free flours and coconut flour is just one of them. I absolutely refuse to waste them! So, I decided to set out on a coconut flour brownie adventure! 

I'm not even going to try and hide it, when I pulled these bad boys out of the oven and saw that they were all sunken...I was mighty sad. Then I thought...wait a minute...I just made strawberry jam a few days ago and these have bananas in them. Omg, I'm going to fill those sunken bits with jam! And the rest is brownie history. These super gooey brownie bites are made with coconut flour and no oil! Filled with your favorite jam, they delight! 

ChocoCoco Strawberry-Banana Brownie Bites 

Makes 11

Notes: These brownies are very gooey. That's just how coconut flour is, in my experience. 

• Flax Egg:
• 2 Tbsp. ground flax seed
• 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp. water
• Dry:
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 2 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 Tbsp. corn starch
• 1 Tbsp. vegan sugar
• 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
• Wet:
• 2 ripe medium bananas, sliced
• 1 cup cartoned plain coconut milk
• 1 Tbsp. agave nectar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract 
• 3 Tbsp. vegan chocolate chips
• Topping:
• jam, of choice (I used homemade strawberry - recipe below)

In a small bowl, whisk together the ground flax and water. Allow to rest in fridge until ready to use. 

In a large bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. 

Preheat oven to 375 F. In a medium bowl, mash the sliced bananas very well with a fork. Add the remaining wet ingredients except the chocolate chips and stir until well combined. 

Add the wet ingredients and the flax egg to the dry mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. 

Coat a muffin pan with a nonstick cooking spray. Divide the batter evenly, until the cups are about 3/4 full. My batter resulted in 11 brownie bites. 

Bake for 60 minutes at 375 F. Allow to rest in pan for 10 minutes after baking, then remove from pan and transfer to a cooling rack to rest another 10 minutes. 

Pour jam into the top of the brownie bites before serving. 

Listening to: Ok Sweetheart – Traitor

German Word of The Day: Flour --> Mehl (pronounced: mell or meel) I didn't know that one!

Good Deed of The Day: I shouldn't have to convince you to head on over to Care2 and sign the petition to ask the USDA to stop feeding dead piglets to their mothers. It only takes 5 seconds and you'll see me there!LiRecipe Card

[yumprint-recipe id='106']See the post on the Strawberry Basil Jam/Sauce, here.

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?