Scrumptious Silver Dollar Vegan Pancakes

So I haven’t owned a nonstick skillet since 2003. I can’t believe I’ve been deprived for that long. When I bought a house, my partner’s Mom bought me a stainless steel cookware set because I thought that’s what the fancy professional chefs were using. After a few weeks, I thought it was one the greatest gifts ever. Well, I soon realized how little use they were when I set out to make scrambled eggs and omelettes one afternoon when we were craving breakfast. Only about 10% of our scrambled eggs and scrambled omelette ended up on our late. It was so sad. So I was soon disappointed. How quickly disappoint can set in. But I trekked on stubbornly with my stainless steel cookware. I just didn’t think I needed a nonstick skillet. That’s what butter is for, right?

We were on a mission to find a nonstick pan yesterday and headed to Sur La Table to check out their huge annual sale.  I was originally looking at a teflon-coated nonstick pan for $49.99, but with the wonderful customer service, we were directed to the Scanpan collection.  They had me at the non-teflon nonstick surface.  I was going to settle for the professional line, but was awe struck with the CTX line and decided to splurge a little more for the CTX 9.5 inch fry pan.

I had extreme buyer’s remorse after purchasing such an expensive nonstick pan.  I wondered if I made the right decision for that amount of money.  Don’t get me wrong, I love useful and innovative kitchen gadgets.  But I never imagined that I’d ever buy an expensive skillet/pan.  I thought one could purchase a decent pan for below $100.  I even thought about returning it a few times after we got home.  Boy, was I wrong!  This was one of the best investments I have ever made for my kitchen.  It lived up too all the hype and then some from the salesperson at Sur La Table.  I want to buy the entire Scanpan CTX collection.  If you are in the market for a nonstick skillet, forget the teflon-coated crap.  Go buy yourself a Scanpan nonstick skillet!  You won’t regret it!

We got home from Sur La table and I immediately started searching for recipes where I could take advantage of the nonstick surface.  Now I realize that you can cook anything and everything with this pan, but I wanted to make something that I haven’t been able to with my stainless steel cookware.  Making pancakes or eggs on my stainless steel skillet basically meant the majority of the batter or egg stuck to the pan.  And it’s a terrible mess to clean up.  So I was between a fried egg sandwich and pancakes.

Silver Dollar Vegan Pancakes

1 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Coconut oil

Mix all the dry ingredients together.  Add wet ingredients and mix just enough to combine.  

Heat one teaspoon of coconut oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Pour the batter around the skillet into 2.5 inch diameter pancakes.  Of course, you can make larger pancakes if that’s what you prefer.

Cook for about a two minutes on the first side or until the surface is covered with small bubbles and the underside is nicely browned.  Flip and cook for about a minute on the second side.  While cooking the pancakes, place the finished ones directly into the oven on the plate. Stack the pancakes as you go. This will keep the whole stack warm while you’re cooking them.  Repeat the process until you run out of batter.

Serve with maple syrup or any of your favorite toppings.

Makes 2 servings of 12 pancakes each.

Calories per serving: 390.

Healthy Refried Black Beans (and it’s vegan, too!)

If you didn’t read my last post on my chile verde recipe, I’m helping my partner wean off of her obsession with restaurant-made Mexican food and Taco Bell.  It is her only vice in life.  My partner loves Mexican food.  And when I say love, I mean it’s an obsession with Mexican food.  My partner is a glutton for anything nachos, tacos, burritos, beans and rice.  She especially loves bean burritos.  Really, anything Mexican food.

Beore I go on, I don’t want to give you the wrong impression that she’s unhealthy and eats loads of calories and fat saturated foods.  She, in fact, is very healthy.  But she has been on a Taco Bell and Mexican food kick for a while now, which shocks me because she used to hate the idea of me consuming fast food.  It’s funny because I was the unhealthy one in our relationship for years.  In fact, I was on a fast food kick daily before we met up until a few months after we started dating.  After a week or so of dating, she was disgusted by the amount of fast food that I consumed, so she made me a “detox salad.”   I used to cringe when I heard the words “detox salad.”  Who needed a detox salad?  Actually, who needed more vegetables in their life?  I mean, doesn’t french fries, and lettuce and tomatoes from a taco or burger count?  Horrifying, right?  That’s how I used to think.  Well, I made a deal with her that I’d wean myself from fast food, but only if I could eat it once every few months.  I did stop, but when I did crave a fast food burger or french fries I made sure to satisfy it.  But I realized how gross I felt afterwards.  And being reminded of that feeling a few more times has given me the will power to stop eating fast food.  The end.

So it’s funny how the tables have turned.  But it makes me sad at the fact that she’s become addicted to Taco Bell.  She can eat all the Mexican food she wants, but only if it’s “real” and “identifiable” foods.  The other thing is that we are trying to lose the “happy 15” pound weight gain (or in our case, happy 20) that we put on our first year of dating.  She’s sort of defeating the purpose of eating healthy and exercising up to four times weekly, if she eats fat laden foods.  So the deal is if she stops eating Taco Bell, I’d make her more healthy Mexican foods.

In my attempt to make healthy, almost authentic homemade Mexican food, I found a refried black bean recipe that doesn’t use lard.  Refried black beans is traditionally made with lard.  But this recipe uses extra virgin olive oil and a nonstick pan to for that “refried” look and taste.

Healthy Refried Black Beans (adapted from New York Times‘ Fitness and Nutrition Section)

2 (15 ounce) cans simmered black beans
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon ground cumin, lightly toasted
1 teaspoon chile powder
1/2 cup yellow onion, minced

Heat medium sauce pan over medium heat.  Drain off about 1 cup of liquid from the beans to reserve, and pour beans and remaining liquid into pot.  Mash half the beans with a potato mahser.  Don’t puree them (you want texture).

Heat extra virgin olive oil over medium-high heat in a large, heavy nonstick frying pan, and add the ground cumin and chili.  Cook, stirring over medium heat, for about a minute, until the spices begin to sizzle and cook.  Add the minced yellow onion to the pan and cook until tender and fragrant.  Add the black beans and fry, stirring and mashing often, until they thicken and begin to get crusty on the bottom and aromatic.  Stir up the crust each time it forms, and mix into the beans.  Cook for about 10 minutes.  The beans should be thick but not dry.  Taste the refried beans, and adjust the salt if necessary.  Add liquid you reserved from the beans if they seem too dry.

Spoon refried black beans over nachos, into a burrito and/or taco, or as a side dish.  This recipe is the perfect prescription for your favorite Mexican food dish.

The refried beans will keep for up to three to four days in the refrigerator.  To reheat, cover with foil and reheat in a 325 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Makes 6 servings (1/2 cup each).

Calories per serving: 135 calories

Vegetarian Lavash Wrap with Tofutti and Hummus

I have been on a weight loss kick since August 2010.  I’ve lost about 20 pounds so far and still have about 10-15 more pounds to lose.  It’s been difficult.  Actually, that’s an understatement.  It’s been REALLY difficult, especially because I love to eat… and all I want to ever do is eat.  I also loved to not do anything but sit on the couch and watch endless amounts of Food Network, HGTV, the Travel Channel (only if it about food), and the Bravo channel.  My life was very sedentary and FULL-filling.  I went to the gym one day in August, got on the scale, and almost had a heart attack.  I realized I was at my heaviest, which made complete sense, because my “fat clothes” were starting to become a little snug on me.  So it finally occurred to me that I needed to lose some weight or else I was putting myself at serious risk of developing diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia.  All of which runs in my family.  Eek!

So here I am, twenty pounds lighter, and still going.  I’ve really cut down my portion sizes, and eating a lot healthier than I used to.  I’ve also reduced buying out for lunch by about 90% while at work, which I feel has helped me significantly! In fact, packing my lunch and dinner (I work 12 hour shifts) has forced me to get creative with making healthier, yet enjoyable recipes.  I’ve experimented with many different kinds of salads for lunch.  Unfortunately, I was as creative as I was getting, I started to get bored with salads.  So my new obsession is the veggie wrap that I came up with recently.

Just in case you’re wondering, I still occasionally enjoy my favorite foods.  Moderation is the key to success.  Who ever said you had to completely cut out all those unhealthy foods was wrong!  If that were true, I would have failed my diet by now.

Vegetarian lavash wrap with Tofutti and Hummus

2 whole wheat lavash
1 small yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 roma tomato, seeded, thinly sliced
2 medium-sized artichoke hearts (in water), chopped or sliced
1 small carrot, cut into thin matchsticks
1/2 avocado, sliced
Baby lettuce mix (or whatever you have on hand)
4 tablespoons Tofutti cream cheese
4 tablespoons of your favorite hummus

Spread 2 tablespoons of toffuti and hummus onto the middle of the lavash.  Top each lavash with thinly sliced bell peppers, sliced tomatoes, artichoke hearts, carrots, 1/4 of the sliced avocado, and a little lettuce mix.  Roll each of them up tightly and cut in half on a diagonal.

Makes 2 servings.

Do Chua (Pickled Carrots and Daikon)

I love all things pickled, especially Korean pickled ban chan.  Well, maybe not all pickled stuff, but most things.  You get the point.  I grew up watching my Mom pickling vegetables… from kim chee to pickled garlic.  But never learned or had the interest until recently.  When I wanted to make banh mis for dinner one night, I was a little worried about finding pickled carrots and daikon only because I KNEW I wouldn’t be able to find it pre-canned.  So I perused through many recipes and finally decided on one.  I don’t know why I chose the one I did, but I’m sure glad I did because the daikon to carrot ratio is 2:1.

Why do I care about the daikon to carrot ratio?  Well, if you haven’t read it already in my banh mi post, I grew up NOT liking carrots.  In fact, I detested carrots while growing up.  I would gag if there was a piece of carrot touching the rest of my food.  If there was shredded carrots mixed in with something else, I simply just wouldn’t eat it.  However, I am slowly coming around.  I’ll eat stewed carrots and pickled carrots.  But if you tried to give me raw carrots, well, we can just forget about being friends.  Drama queen.  I know.  But that’s how much I hate raw carrots in its natural form.  Anyhow, to make the long story short, the desire of wanting to pickle carrots was a whole new world to me.

I knew I had to marinate the carrots and daikon in the pickling solution for at least an hour, so I made my way to Whole Foods hours before dinner.  I got home and started cutting my carrots and daikon into “thick matchsticks.”  This part of the process was exhausting as I hovered over the chopping board cutting, while trying not to slice my hand.  At one point, my right hand (the chopping hand) started to tingle with some numbness, almost like carpal tunnel syndrome.  But I mustered through it and had a full bowl of matchstick-sized daikon and carrots ready for pickling!

Do Chua (adapted from Viet World Kitchen)

1 large carrot, peeled and cut into thick matchsticks
1 pound daikon, peeled and cut into thick matchsticks
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons plus 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups distilled white vinegar
1 cup warm water

In a bowl, combine the half cup of sugar, vinegar, and water and stir to dissolve the sugar.

Place the carrot and daikons in a colander and sprinkle with the salt and 2 teaspoons of the sugar.  Mix the sugar and salt mixture into the vegetables, and let it sit for a few minutes to soften.  Use your hands to knead the vegetables.  Stop kneading when you can bend a piece of daikon so that the ends touch but the daikon does not break.  The vegetables should have lost about one-fourth of its water volume.  Rinse under cold running water, and then gently squeeze to expel extra water.

Place carrots and daikon in a bowl and pour the pickling solution over the vegetables. The solution should cover the vegetables.  Let the vegetables marinate in the brine for at least 1 hour before eating.  They will keep in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks.  Beyond that point, they get tired.