Cassie's German Blender Pancakes

Meet my friend Cassie.

You know when you meet a person, and she is just good at everything?  She's unbelievably smart, beautiful, and talented, to the point where you just want to say, enough already?  She sings, she's a great actress, she can dance.  Ugh.  But then it also turns out that she is hilariously funny and sweet, and gives you no choice but to instantly want to be her friend?  That is Cassie all over.

Last summer, I had the opportunity to get back to my educational roots by working with Worcester Shakespeare Company as the Production Stage Manager.  I don't know if I've discussed this, but even though I work at the fabulously glamorous electric company in customer service, I actually started out as an English major studying Shakespeare.  I have a Masters in English and wrote a crazy long comparative literature-style thesis where I talked about Eastern religious themes in King Lear, because that's how I roll--putting things together that have no business being together :)  Anyhoodles, I have been out of school for quite a while now, but Shakespeare is still my first love.  So when I finally crawled out from under a rock and realized that there was a summer Shakespeare company here in Worcester, I was thrilled to be able to get involved.

One of the most unexpected and wonderful things about working on the play was that I ended up meeting such an excellent and eclectic group of people, of whom Cassie was one.  We did Taming of the Shrew, with Cassie in the title role.  And although I've seen probably a dozen different productions of that play, I can very honestly say I don't think I've seen a better Kate.  Cassie perfectly managed to capture rage-Kate while at the same time showing the vulnerability within, and she did it with a sense of humor.  And that is probably because her own greatest quality is her ability to know that you don't always have to take yourself seriously.  For as many Facebook pictures as she has like the beautiful one above, there is always something like this one to balance it out:     

And as if all that wasn't enough, she gives me super-cool vegan recipes and doesn't yell at me for not posting them for three months!

Cassie's German Blender Pancakes

1/2 cup mashed banana (about 1 medium banana; overripe is best)

4 tbsp flour

2 tbsp sugar

pinch salt

3/4 cup non-dairy milk

Combine ingredients in your blender and run until well mixed.  The mixture should be very thin--almost runny.  Allow mixture to sit for a few minutes until frothiness subsides.  In the meantime, heat up a nonstick skillet over medium heat.  (If your skillet still tends to stick, you should use a small amount of cooking spray before each pancake.)  Once the skillet is hot, pour 1/4 cup of batter into the center of the pan and rotate the pan to allow the batter to spread.  You are looking for a thin, crepe-like pancake about 8-10 inches across.  Cook until the edges are golden brown, resisting the urge to flip too early.  When the edges are golden brown, use a spatula to gingerly lift the pancake and flip it.  (A good tip would be to tilt the pan vertically and slide your spatula underneath.)  Cook the other side for a few additional minutes until it is browned.  Repeat the process to make an additional 3-4 pancakes.  Keep cooked cakes warm on a plate in a 200 degree oven. 

These would be amazing on their own, but when you roll them up around strawberry jam and drizzle with a little maple syrup, they become absolutely gourmet.  Cassie also reports that she (and her equally phenomenal boyfriend Dan, who also deserves effusive praise for being an all-around awesome, super-talented dude) consider this recipe one of their staples not only for breakfast, but also for dessert, by replacing the jam with Nutella.  Nutella is sadly not vegan (although you can find or make a vegan version without too much trouble), but I do think these pancakes would like to be introduced to cashew cream or a vegan chocolatey spread to become a dessert course made in heaven.  And if all that isn't good enough, remember that this is an oil-free recipe, unless you have to use a tiny bit of cooking spray to make sure your pancakes don't stick.  I have made this with all purpose flour and with whole wheat pastry flour, and it works just as well either way, so you don't have to sacrifice health quality for flavor.  And why should you have to?  As Cassie proves, it's always a good idea to balance out your "serious" with a healthy dose of "silly."

Slow Cooker Vegetable Stew

Hi, I'm back!  I want to apologize for disappearing for a week.  It wasn't necessarily because I wanted to, but more because I've been going non-stop since last week.  I almost always have quite a few irons in the fire, but this last week, it's all converged to make me a little nuts.  Besides the blog and the full time plus job, John & I have a film production company business as well, in addition to him being an actor (and me driving him to auditions so he doesn't have to pay to park in Boston or Providence -- and he got the Providence job by the way, hooray!).  We work in non-fiction and fiction both, and depending on the project we could be handling everything from writing to pre-production to packaging and selling an end product.  Right now, we are also interested in getting into some freelance video editing.  So over the last week, I've been on the road a lot while also working and trying to stick to my every day exercise program and eating halfway decently and maybe getting at least 6 hours of sleep.  So no big deal, right?

The good news is, I have plenty of things to post, so provided I have time and can shut up about my life long enough to talk about food, I should be able to jump on a few times this week to share some of the recipes I've had lately.  The most thematically appropriate for this post seems to be this one, which uses my most neglected kitchen appliance, the slow cooker.  I don't know what it is about me and the slow cooker, but it's just not something I think of using very often.  I know how easy and convenient it is, but I guess I tend to be more hands-on with cooking.  The only meal I tend to think of as a definite crock-pot dish is stew.  I used to make beef stew a few times each winter, so I decided to make it without the beef (or seitan or another meat substitute) this time and see what happened.  What happened?  A hearty, healthy and delicious vegetable stew!  It's also oil free, so I think it would fit in with Eat to Live and McDougall followers.

Chunky Vegetable Stew

3 stalks celery, chopped

3 carrots, peeled and cut on the bias

6 small potatoes (Yukon gold), peeled and diced

1 onion, chopped

1 cup cooked lima beans

1 can green beans, drained

1 large can diced tomatoes, with juice

1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed

Garlic powder, oregano, salt, and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients except spices in slow cooker.  If necessary, add water to make sure vegetables are mostly covered.  Cook on low for 6 hours, stirring occasionally if possible.  In last 30 minutes, add spices, stir, and simmer.  A light touch with the salt is best.    

I almost never eat corn or lima beans but when I had them in this stew I remembered how much I love them.  They taste so good with tomato for some reason!  I almost always am saying in my recipes to adapt based on what you have on hand, and that is no different here, but I will also say that something about this combo is particularly tasty.  This would probably be pretty great with cornbread, but we just ate it as is.

We managed to make it through Tuesday without a full-on blizzard, which is more than I could have said for the last two weeks, and the sun was actually still out when I left work today, so that has me in a better frame of mind.  Hope the same holds true for the rest of you!

More Almost Homemade Vegan Dinners

Tonight, central Massachusetts is experiencing a brief respite between massive snowstorms.  I am in a hotel room about a mile away from my office so that I could minimize my driving time.  My Hyundai Accent is a great little car, but it's not a snow plow, and I'm hoping that by the time my workday is over tomorrow, a lot of the 2 feet plus of snow will be fallen and pushed out of the way so that I can get home without too much trouble.

Needless to say, these are the times when being vegan can be really difficult.  I didn't know the extent of the snow we were getting until this morning, and when I saw that it could be in the 25 inches range, I threw together a suitcase hoping I would be able to spend the night closer to work.  (I'm only about a 20 minute drive away on a normal day, but that has stretched into over an hour when we get snow like this.)  I also threw two days worth of breakfast and lunch into a bag (English muffins with Smart Bacon and vegan "egg" for brekky sandwiches, a tofu "egg" salad sandwich, an apple, and some leftover pizza--yes, sad food, I know--I was in a big hurry), and grabbed a few dollars worth of quarters for vending machines in case of emergency.  Tonight, I got capellini pomodoro from Olive Garden right next to my hotel.  Vegan?  Yes.  Blog-worthy?  No.  But at least I got a hot meal and a big (dry) salad.  Plus John talked me into bringing my laptop so I can post a couple of the things I've been sitting on for a while.

Both of these meals are homemade except for one convenient ingredient each.  In both cases, it was something I had sitting around for a night when I was short on time but still wanted to make sure I got something healthful and veggie-packed.

Vegan Chorizo Potato Hash

5 medium potatoes (Yukon golds are good in this), uniformly diced, peeled if not organic

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

1 medium to large green pepper, coarsely chopped

1 cup sliced mushrooms (button or cremini)

1/2 tomato, diced

1 package soy chorizo (sold at Trader Joe's and other well-stocked supermarkets)

Parboil potatoes in a large saucepan over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes or until slightly yielding but still holding shape.  In a large skillet or wok over medium heat, saute onions and peppers in small amount of water until onions are beginning to soften.  Add drained potatoes and stir fry for a few minutes.  Add mushrooms and continue to stir fry until potatoes and mushrooms are beginning to brown.    Add chorizo and continue to stir fry.  When chorizo is heated through, add tomatoes and stir fry for several minutes until tomatoes begin to lose shape.  At this point, onions and pepper should be tender crisp, potatoes cooked through, mushrooms browned and chorizo starting to brown.  Makes about 5 servings.

It's not the most attractive meal, but it's tasty and filling, and it's one of the first vegan meals I ever thought up.  John is a "meat" and potatoes kind of guy, so it's something he really enjoys and always wants an extra serving of.  Interestingly, the package of soyrizo I used this time had a similar recipe printed right on the package.  

Cauliflower Chickpea Curry

1 medium onion, diced

1 medium green pepper, diced

1/2 head of cauliflower

2 cups cooked chickpeas

1 jar of vegan curry simmer sauce (I used Trader Joe's brand, but Seeds of Change makes a few truly excellent varieties as well)

Cooked brown rice

Saute onions and peppers in water over medium heat until slightly softened.  Add cauliflower, chickpeas, and simmer sauce.  Mix well and lower heat to low.  Simmer for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until cauliflower has softened to tender crisp.  If mixture becomes too thick, add water and stir.  Once cauliflower reaches desired texture, serve mixture over cooked brown rice.  Makes 4-5 servings.

John & I both love Indian food, and I got an Indian vegan cookbook for Christmas, but I haven't had a chance to really get involved with it yet.  Right now, with the amount of snow we have on the ground, even the simplest trip to the grocery store takes more than twice as long as it should  Maybe when all this snow finally subsides I'll be able to get to one of the nearby Indian groceries and pick up a few ingredients to experiment with.  For the time being though, with how busy I have been, and how little I care to leave the house, this will definitely do!

Vegan "Tuna" Salad

One of the things I thought I would miss after going vegan was tuna sandwiches. Fortunately, there is a vegan substitute that is just as delicious and, unlike tuna fish salad, which I grew up erroneously believing to be a health food, the vegan version is actually not that bad for you.

There are a ton of vegan "tuna" salad recipes out there on the internet, and I've tried quite a few different variations, but for me, they were all missing something.  I grew up on tuna salad with chopped boiled eggs in it, which I guess is a regional thing, and that was the flavor I have been missing.  So since I have been cooking with black salt quite a bit lately, I decided to add it to my mock tuna salad, and it worked!

Vegan "Tuna" Salad


1.5 cups cooked chickpeas (if canned, drain & rinse)
1 tbsp vegan mayonnaise (I use Vegenaise, but Nayonnaise could work just as well)
1 tsp mustard
2 tbsp sweet pickle relish
3 generous pinches black salt (Kala Namak - salt with a sulfurous smell/taste; can be purchased in some health food stores or online)
1/2 tsp kelp powder (optional)


Using a fork, coarsely mash chickpeas.  It is okay to leave a few chickpeas whole, as it gives the mixture a nice texture.  Add remaining ingredients and mix well.  Serve on a sandwich, over lettuce, or even alone, if you like.  Makes about 3 servings.

I'm a sandwich girl myself.  I usually add tomato right before eating.

If you didn't grow up on the tuna & egg salad like me, then you could use the basic mashed chickpeas and vegan mayo and customize it to your own taste, by adding chopped celery or other ingredients that say "tuna salad" to you.  Whatever your veggie add-ins, you will be avoiding the problems with the original, like mercury-laden tuna and eggy, fatty mayo, while still getting a delicious, high protein lunch.  

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and that most of you are off tomorrow.  I'm not, but at least I'll be earning a floating holiday and having a fantastic sandwich!