Top Ramen for a discerning Palate

Tonights Vegan dinner brought you by the good people  at Nissin 

You got start somewhere.  I prefer Soba (buckwheat) to ramen but the occasional enriched noodle can be enjoyable too, especially if you spice it up.

I bought a fresh stalk of brussel sprouts on my way home from the gym.  I usally steam them in my rice cooker and was trying to think of a good way to use the boiling water which absorbs much of the nutrients during steaming. I decided to cook up a 19 cent package of Oriental flavored Noodles. (too lazy right now to be creative in my narration) While the Spouts steamed above, I added a handful of shiitake mushrooms, a few cloves of garlic,a thinly sliced carrot, some onion,  and a small diced up home grown Habanero to the boiling water.

 Once the sprouts were done I added the ramen to the water along with a large handful of fresh organic cilantro and a full avocado.  It was already pretty damn spicy but why not top it with roughly a half bottle of Sontava habanero hot sauce.

It ended up being intensely hot. A perfect meal for a chilly night.  I washed down my dinner with both Ice cold and piping hot Californian Sake.  It was a pretty simple meal that didn't cost much, was pretty easy to make and I can still feel the warmth in my belly.  

I love to eat and I usually consume anywhere between 3,500 -5,500 calories a day.  I enjoy trying new things and I get excited about I consume.  I'm don't like too spend a lot  money (who does?) and I love to use fresh ingredients (who doesn't?). I rarely eat out at restaurants and prefer to make most of my own meals. This page represents an ongoing photo essay of the foods that make up who I am as I embrace a vegan diet.

11/20/10

Stir fry or Die!

Maybe the best stir fry I ever had: 1 full bulb of garlic, 1 large homegrown Habanero, 1 onion, 2 organic carrots, some fresh green beans,  a buch of shiitake mushrooms with a mix of soba noodle (Japanese buckwheat) and brussel sprouts on the side.  I stir fried all the vegi's except the brussel sprouts which I steamed with rice cooker and cooked the soba in below (to catch some flavor).  I mixed the noodles in the wok with some olive oil, water, ponzu and Sriracha. It was suprised and very happy with  how spicy the habanero made it. The whole meal cost less than $5 and made between 6 and 8 servings.  I washed it down with a cup of hot green tea and a cold cup of sake.

11/18/10

Bento Dinner

Steamed zucchini, squash, daikon and a mix of steamed greens.  Baked potato, stuffed with roasted garlic.  Soba (Japanese Buckwheat noodle) and bean sprouts served with Ponzu and Sriracha.  The whole dinner cost me about $1.50 and was quite beautiful

11/17/10

The Sweeney with sprouts on the side and roasted garlic

ciabatta, 1 full avocado, deli mustard, cranberry sauce, raw onion

11/16/10

Too sweet, my first culinary failure in some time

I was about 10P.M. and I had not eaten dinner yet (I prefer to have dinner between 5 and 7 p.m.) I recently bought a jar of tahini butter and some Hot pepper jelly.  My plan was to make sandwich but I had no bread.  I had some whole wheat tortilla's sitting around so I decided to make a wrap.  In a last minute decision I added a banana and made a second wrap with cranberry sauce.  I poured myself a small glass of bourbon to wash it down.  The first bite was very good, but that's all I needed both wraps were way too sweet and taste of the tahini butter was a little off.

11/15/10

The Sweeney slider edition

I got home late and was too lazy to cook I made two sliders : Rosemary roll, 1/2 and avocado in each a slice of onion some deli mustard and some cranberry sauce.

11/14/10

If I ever have sandwich named after me at a restaurant I want this to be it.

The Sweeney

   Toasted Ciabatta bread, 1 full avocado, sauted onions, sauted portobello, fresh alfalfa sprouts, deli mustard and cranberry sauce. Served with salt an vinegar chips. Salad mixed dark greens, onion, alfalfa, bean sprouts, carrots, zucchini, squash topped with macadamia oil and balsamic vinegar.  First off any sandwich with a whole avocado is awesome.  The mix of mustard and cranberry sauce work great honestly the sandwich didn't even need the mushroom but what the hell.

1/13/10

Hemp Milk

I was once a big time coupon clipper but that time has passed.  About 2 weeks ago I signed up for a 1 year Sunday only Subscription to the L.A times for $10.00(that means coupons). I was thumbing ads and found a coupon for hemp milk.  I went to the market found it  on sale for  $1.00 after coupon. I also got 2 boxes of Cheerios (haven't had them in years) for $1.00 a box as well.  The Hemp milk  tasted pretty decent in cereal, but they loaded it up with a ton of sugar.  For  $1.00 it was a good buy and tasted much better than Soy milk, but not nearly as good as any Almond milk I have tried.  The dumb ass rebel, hippie in me also enjoyed the He He factor of buying a product made from Canibus.

 1/12/10

Vegi bowl for breakfast

I went is on one of those Organic Farmer's market boxes with a friend of mine this week.  I'm not entirely shore what all the greens were but this is what I do know if that it tasted pretty freaking awesome. Ingredients : Sauted garlic, garlic chives, shiitake mushrooms, onions, tofu, jalapeño, kale, mustard greens, romaine lettuce, daikonn leaves, served on top of bowl of Quinoa. No sauces used in cooking but it did add a bit of Sriracha and Ponzu afterwards.

11/11/10

Mystery micro watermelon

This mysterious watermelon grew out of the side of my topsy turvy.  I did not plant any watermelon seeds.

It was full grown at less than 2 inches and showed signs that it might go bad If I did not harvest. I cut it open and got 2 sweet tasting spoon fulls lycopene goodness

11/10

Steamed Veggies and roasted garlic

The green and yellow squash was delicious, I like to steam it for a very short time so it still has some crunch. the mushrooms were nice for changing the palate.  The artichoke heart was nice but the leaves didn't have much meat.  The bulb of garlic was thrown in the oven for about 20 minutes so that it was easy to peel and 

Half assed pizza

I wqas still hungery and had alittle dough left that was gonna go bad if I did'n't cook it up.  I was just gonna make some garlic bread but added some onions, tomatoes and cilantro

11/09/10

Vegan pizza

whole wheat crust, about 15 home grown tomatoes, 1 carrot, 9 mushrooms, a hand full of cilantro, 3 jalapeños, 1 habanero, 1/2 an onion, 12 cloves of garlic, topped with a fresh Avocado and quenched w/ some Australian red and China's #1 beer

11/08/10

Mushroom taco

Cactus tortilla, beech mushrooms (cooked in the wok with water) lentils, avocado, cilantro, onions, tomatoes, doused with a ton of habanero hot sauce.  I made about 6 of these for dinner