Karina Wraps up her night off!

Wow, how difficult it can be to find the time to cook a creative and thoughtful meal when you're busy! (Let alone document it and post it on your very neglected food blog...one that attempts to convince people how easy it is!).

I had a precious night off last week and was thrilled when my dear and equally busy friend, Molly, was able to come over for some dinner and much-needed catching up.

I have recently moved to the mission (but yes, we are still keeping our clever name referring to my living in the haight..) and am excited to have one of my favorite local, organic co-ops, Rainbow Grocery, in easy access to my new location.


Rainbow is extremely dangerous for me, because I just can't stop filling my basket with all of its amazing, colorful organic produce and I always spend too much. It was a really hot night in San Francisco (they do exist from time to time) so I decided to keep it fresh and light and go all out!

For my prep, I chopped up garlic, ginger, carrots, fresh mint, a spicy green pepper, and these amazing little things I had never heard of:

Kiwi Berries!! Its exactly what you would imagine- tasting like a mini kiwi...berry... tart and yummy and so freakin' cute!


I made a salad of the chopped carrots, cucumbers, yellow bell pepper, kale, ginger, a touch of garlic, mint, a tiny portion of the spicy pepper, and several sliced kiwi berries. I squeezed a fresh lemon and lime in it, a few drizzles of olive oil, added sea salt, cinnamon, cayenne, and some agave. I played with all of these things until it had the perfect acidic, sweet, spicy balance. I stuck it in the fridge so that the kale would have a chance to marinate and soften up in the juices.


I next took two super ripe, organic peaches and an avocado, and threw them in the food processor with fresh mint, garlic, ginger, lime, the rest of the spicy pepper, salt, agave and a spoon full of almond butter. I toyed with this sauce for a long time, adding more sweet, then savory (curry, cayenne) and then more citrus until I was getting full from tasting so much of it!


It turned out so smooth, refreshing and tasty, but left you with raging garlic breath!!


One of my favorite things to do is to use purple cabbage leafs en lieu of a tortilla or bread. I cut slivers in the cabbage at the bottom of each leaf, and carefully pealed them off intact and washed them...


In a pan I sauteed a half on onion, these lovely little Asian mushrooms (I forgot to right down the name!) and...


These meatless shitake mushroom seitan strips I found at Rainbow. I try not to endulge too often, but I have such a weakness for fake meats! When they are good that is- and these are awesome and really affordable if you happen to find them!


Once I spiced to my liking- salt, pepper, cayenne, cumin, paprika...I added a bunch of fresh spinach and let it slightly wilt into the saute.


Once I had lastly prepared some thin brown rice noodles, I set up the our very exciting 'build your own cabbage wrap station' in between our empty plates!


The lovely Miss Molly chooses her own wrap adventure with a glass of Rose!


So delicious and fresh I could eat it for days. Wait... I absolutely did!

Karina Steals Seaweed Salad for Sushi Feast!

I'm a big fan of sushi and an even bigger fan of throwing sushi parties. It's a cheap, relatively easy way to feed and impress a lot of people at once. I actually did an entry on throwing a sushi party last year you can check out by clicking the link, so I won't get into the actual rolling process here...


Instead, I am going to share the AMAZING seaweed/avocado salad I made to go with the sushi. (Actually, the amazing seaweed/avocado salad I ripped off from a prominent, vegetarian fine dining spot I had eaten at that week... It rhymes with Bellenium...)


I made a big batch of glass rice noodles. These only need to be boiled in water for a few minutes total.


I sliced a bunch of organic raw kale and mixed it with chopped carrots, cucumbers, apples and seaweed. I was actually overwhelmed when I stopped by the Japanese market by the many different ways to buy seaweed (all with Japanese labels) and actually just ended up buying two containers of freshly and already- made seaweed salad to save some time.


I threw in some sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, two fresh avocados, and tossed it with a lime-tahini dressing I had in my fridge left over from a few nights earlier (olive oil, lime, tahini, garlic, salt, agave, cayenne, and pepper.)


This is just a picture of some sweet potatoes I roasted with garlic and onion that I put in a few rolls!


Like I stated in my previous sushi post- you can put ANYTHING in sushi. In these rolls I used carrot, cucumber, roasted sweet potato, mango, apple, yellow b. pepper, avocado, asparagus, dates, and almond butter. You just get all your ingredients together, cut and cooked (if needed) and make every roll completely different!


And of course always have plenty of pickled ginger and wasabi on hand!


Best part is all the cooking is done by the time people come over and you can just enjoy and eat rolls until you all burst!

Karina and Alma "amuse" their "bouche"....

We've all been in the state where we are by no means hungry or even capable of eating a full meal, but crave something unique and delicious to satiate the taste buds. Some may call these mini-meals munchies (or simply snacks), but this particular evening Alma and I were in need of something extra special; so we used the french term "Amuse- Bouche".

Amuse Bouche actually translates to "mouth amuser" and it is often sent out to VIP tables from the chef in restaurant before their meal. Wikipedia told me that "it is distinguished from other kinds of hors d'œuvres by three characteristics. It is small, usually just one or two bites. It is the same for all of the guests at the table. And finally, it is not ordered by anyone; rather it is offered free of charge."

We had a few ingredients at my house and ran to the market and picked a few more to improvise with. We got garlic, of course, an avocado, a prepared tube of organic polenta, Quorn vegetarian Chicken nuggets, and a pomegranate to garnish with.

First we turned the oven on 400* and put the whole bulb of garlic in to roast for about 45 minutes. We sliced the cooked polenta into 1/4 inch thick circles, and spread them out on a cookie sheet with the faux chicken nuggets. We added these to the oven when the garlic had about 15 minutes left. We sprinkled them with salt, pepper, lemon and cayenne before popping them in to turn golden brown and slightly crunchy.

We mashed the avocado up with some vegan sour cream I had, lemon, salt and pepper for a delicious and creamy sauce. We took our baked ingredients and stacked them together with the sauce and roasted garlic and sprinkled them with pomegranate seeds and fresh cayenne pepper.

Only problem with these "amuse bouche".... Although they did indeed make us feel like ultra VIPs, there was no way to stop after just one! (I'm not sure if they qualify for the term after eating the entire tray between two of us!)

Karina makes ..."Zuc Noods" with Vegan Avocado alfredo

I ate in this beautiful vegan restaurant in San Diego once where they had a Zucchini Noodle Pasta Dish on the menu. At the time my friend and I were too full and wanted only juices and an appetizer, but we obsessed on the idea of these "Zucc Noods" and were determined to come back and try them. Much to our devastation, the restaurant closed down for "renovation" only the next week and never seemed to open their doors again...

The other night I was craving a dish that was indulgent and satisfying in taste, but not too hard on the belly. When I looked at the fresh, organic produce I had just purchased and noticed I had picked up a great deal of zucchini, my desire to find out what these mysterious Zucc Noods could be all about flashed into my mind.

I had a big bunch of carrots as well as zucchini, so I decided I would combine the two to make my "pasta" that much more colorful, delicious, and nutritious. I experimented with several different ways to cut them into a noodle, and found simply peeling strips off with a carrot peeler worked the best for me.

I sprinkled the prepped noodles with lemon and stuck them in the fridge to stay crisp and fresh until boiling time.

I still had a bag of raw cashews left over, so I started the process of making a vegan sauce by soaking them this time. Me always being the experimenter that I am, decided I would soak them in OJ to give them a little citrus twist.

After several hours in the OJ, I drained them and added them into the food processor with 3 cloves of garlic, 2 tbls tahini, 3/4 ripe avocado, 1/2 red onion, a few leafs of basil, a bunch of spinach, 2 tbls earth balance, a splash of braggs, a few squirts of fresh lemon juice, a few shakes of salt, pepper, cayenne, sage, & paprika. I added some olive oil while it blended to make sure it was really smooth.

I heated some water on the stove and boiled my zucc and carrot noods for only a few mintutes (prob 5 or so) until they were soft and tender but not mushy.

After draining the water, I mixed in my vegan avocado "alfredo" and simmered on low until the sauce was warm. In the oven I had been preparing my pasta toppings: roasted shiitake mushrooms, garlic, and onions that I baked with olive oil, braggs, lemon, salt and pepper for about 45 minutes at 400*. I prepared a fresh spin salad with fresh organic heirloom tomatoes, cucumber, olive oil and lemon to go with it...

And finally devoured my fantasy feast of zucc noods! (I don't know how that restaurant actually prepared their dish, but let's just say they may have had a little competition coming their way...)