Recycle batteries: Keep a small basket handy in your home office or kitchen. Put the old batteries in there and when full drop them off at your local office supply store. Most stores recycle them!
Closet: Go through your closet every six months and pull out the clothes you know you are not wearing and probably will never wear. Keep a cloth or plastic bag hanging in your closet for the clothes you are donating. A great place for clothes donations is National Council of Jewish Women/LA Council Thrift Shops. They will send you an itemized breakdown of what your clothes are worth! Very handy for tax time.
Kitchen: Do the same clean out with your kitchen pantry. Look for canned goods that have expired and yes, they do expire! Best thing is catch them before they expire and donate them to your local food bank.
Kitchen: Keep small basket in the pantry or drawer for open packages such as rice, whole grains, cereals. Great place for your bulk foods as well!
Home office: FILE once a week! I know it's a challenge but it really does keep that de-cluttered feeling flowing! Seeing an overflowing inbox is overwhelming and is something that will get put off and put off until you are looking for that one important document! File before fun and you will have more fun!!
Afterwards, head immediately to Native Foods Cafe for an Oklahoma Bacon Cheeseburger!
After a long day of organizing, vegan food from Native Foods Cafe is the best way to celebrate!
For more info and to schedule an appointment with Kelly, check out Love To Organize!
Getting’ your grill on today? Well it is Memorial Day and all and lots of people will be firing up the ol’ barbie and cooking up lots of delicious (and not so delicious grub). So for those of you scrapping up some goods to show off your culinary expertise to your omni-friends…. Behold the Jerk Burger!!! And I’m not talkin’ the Jerk as in Steve Martin!
I’m talking Chef Tanya’s out-of-control delicious Jerk Burgers made from homemade seitan. This was on the menu many moons ago at Native Foods Café and I eagerly await its return (I have shoved many comments in the Comment Boxes at various Native Foods Cafes demanding the immediate return of this all mighty sandwich to the Native Foods Café menu and sent Chef Tanya lots of midnight texts… to no avail… but I feel it coming!). In the mean time, roll up your sleeves, get out the gluten flour and start kneading! (If you don't have time to make homemade seitan and live in Southern California, Vegan Kitchen's Grilled Seitan works great in a pinch and is available at most Whole Foods.)
But first make this broth!
Seitan Broth:
10 cups water
2 cups soy sauce
8 cloves whole garlic, peeled
4 bay leaves
3 two-inch slices fresh ginger
Place all ingredients in stockpot and bring to simmer.
Seitan:
4 cups unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup gluten flour
2-2 ½ cups water
In a mixing bowl, combine flours well. Begin adding water slowly and consistently while stirring to form a well in the center. (Water absorption will slightly vary depending on the flours and the climate.) Incorporate dry flour from the outer circumference of the bowl toward the center of the well. Continue mixing until a firm dough is formed.
Dust a flat, firm work surface with unbleached flour and knead about 70 times, more is better (don’t worry… it just sounds like a lot). You’ll probably need to dust the dough with more flour if it gets slightly sticky to work with. Music is key here… I recommend a little Ida Marie:
Let the dough ball rest for 20 minutes.
With the dough ball in the bowl, place the bowl in the sink and add water to cover the dough. Begin kneading the dough until the water turns really milky. Drain the water, add more fresh water, and repeat kneading process 10-12 times.
Form the gluten into shapes of your liking. If making a single loaf, pierce and weave a 12-inch bamboo skewer through it to hold it together, or you can wrap and tie with cheesecloth to hold the shape.
Gently place the loaf in the simmering Seitan Broth, bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer again and cook for 1 ½ hours. Remove from pot and place on a plate to cool. It will last in the fridge for three weeks and stay frozen forever!
If you made individual seitan steaks, you’re good to go! If you made a big loaf, slice into nice size steaks that will fit nicely on a bun.
Jamaican Jerk Marinade:
2 cups chopped green onion
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup soy sauce
¼ cup safflower or sunflower oil
3 garlic cloves, sliced
1 jalapeno pepper with seeds, chopped
1 ½ tsp allspice
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
Put all ingredients in blender and puree!
Next place seitan steaks in marinade so they are covered well (depending on the amount of burgers you’d like to make, you may want to double or triple the marinade recipe).
Marinate at least an hour… the longer the better!
Throw these babies on the grill till heated all the way through with some nice grill marks on them.
Serve on a delicious bun with Vegenaise, lettuce, tomato, red onion and avocado! Maybe pickles too....... Oh, and don't be a jerk... Share!
We borrowed this picture from Yummy Vegan Dinners because it looks so dang delicious and we ate all the Jerk Burgers before we got a picture! Check out Yummy Vegan Dinners for some dang delicious recipes as well.
Native Foods Cafe newbies....we had a blast at the Vegan 101 Series of Cooking Demos we will be continuing this summer. Chef Tanya Petrovna rocked out with the mushroom quinoa pilaf...yum!
So it is kinda weird to think about it now… but I used to love pot roast and beef stew… like LOVE, LOVE it. My Dad would make either of them in the slow-cooker and it was just downright delicious. These days, it’s pretty gnarly (and not in a good way) to imagine gnawing on dead animals (even if they’re marinated in savory spices) so I am stoked to share with you an incredibly delicious Seitanic Stew Recipe!!! Are you impressed that I just used two words beginning in “gn” in the same sentence? Yes, gnarly is a real word.
Mi chica Ali shares the same love of this meatless meatiness… so years ago we took her mother’s beef stew recipe and turned it on its head… yep, we veganized it! And it turned out stellar, thanks to Chef Tanya’s recipe for a beefless stock in her first cookbook The Meat Lover’s Vegetarian Cookbook.
Now this stock yields A LOT… so I usually cut it in half and I still have lots leftover, which you can freeze for making French Onion Soup or dipping French Dip sandwiches later on (hint, hint… wink, wink Teddye).
The Stock:
20 cups water
2 cups soy sauce
1 onion, peeled and quartered
10 garlic cloves, peeled
1 3-inch piece of ginger, unpeeled and sliced
7 bay leaves
Combine ingredients, bring to a boil and let cool. Strain.
I like to save the onions, and add to the stew!
The Stew:
1 lb seitan, chopped or sliced in 1-inch pieces (homemade is best!)
Fresh herbs (parsley, sage thyme, rosemary), chopped, about ¼ cup of each
A good shake of ground cloves
2 cups stock (recipe above)
1 cup red wine
1 cup carrots, chopped or sliced
1 cup celery, chopped or sliced
4-5 large Yukon gold potatoes (chopped in 1-inch pieces)
Sautee the onion in a little bit of olive oil (or broth for a lower fat version).
Once lightly browned, add the seitan and sautee another few minutes.
Add the four and mix well to coat the seitan and onions.
Add fresh herbs, shake of cloves, and salt and pepper and mix well.
Add stock and wine and simmer for about 10 minutes.
In separate sauce pan, prepare gravy according to package and then add to stew.
Add carrots and celery and simmer.
In the mean time, bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the potatoes separately so they don’t get too mushy. About 20 min or until potatoes pierce easily with a fork.
Put potatoes in bottom of bowl and pour stew on top.
Serve with hot, crusty bread or pull-apart rolls, share with friends and enjoy!
Side Note: The stew can cook for longer if you’d like…. Just sample as you go to reach desired flavor! And it tastes even better the next day. Leftovers rule.
Homemade seitan is best! But you can always pick come up at you nearest Native Foods Cafe in a pinch! Stewin' and a brewin'! Best served with a nice red.... Zinfandel or a Petite Sirah per chance? Mmmmmmmmm... all hail seitan.
3. The Spicy Rock Shiitake Tempura mushroom appetizer at Shojin restaurant in downtown LA...
We borrowed this picture from Quarry Girl! If you have not checked out her blog... you must do so! She features everything new, delicious, controversial and fabulous in the realm of vegan food... from all over the world!
I am in love with this veggie...if you haven't tried the Sesame Kale Macro Bowl at Native Foods Cafe that comes with a crunchy cucumber seaweed salad on the side, come on in and I'll make you one! Fun facts on the quirky cuke below!
So May is National Bike month and it’s a swell time to get a bike if you don’t have one. Lots of bike shops are offering specials, the weather is getting great and it makes you feel good. More than just making you feel good, riding a bike makes you happy. Remember the part of the fairy tale that says “happily ever after?” The chapter they always remove is actually the part where they go bike riding. Maybe the writers never feel it’s sensuous enough or they are just keeping it a secret but there are other groups that are trying to get your bottom on those seats and ride. Get on one and just ride a block and see what I mean. It puts the wind back in your sails and a smile on your face. Trust me.
There are websites for bicyclists that cover topics from family to hard core racers and everything inbetween. In other words bicycling offers something for everyone.
Other reasons to bike:
Everyone can do it and do it together.
Brings joy into your life…see this to feel it...
If there were bike thoroughfares in L.A. alone you could go from the West Side to downtown much faster than driving oftentimes.
At $5/gallon and a pollution nightmare cars are getting less hip, and if you can bike it makes cars an ‘un’necessary evil.
Lastly and maybe bestly there is a whole fashionista culture in biking that is truly diverse and you can find your own niche from clothing (http://www.newcolonist.com/bikeclothing.html ) to how you design your bike at Atomic Zombie.
Granny's Nightmare from Atomic Zombie!
I’ve loved bikes forever. I remember the days I rode without training wheels like it was yesterday on my first green banana seat Schwinn. Maybe that’s why I like green so much. As a tween, my ten speed was my life and now I have a cast of bicycle characters that have followed me home through the years…a little lower maintenance than my pets .
Chef Tanya of Native Foods Cafe first cruiser looked a lil' something like this...
Do you have a special bike you’d like to share? Check out the Native Foods Cafe Facebook Page page to show off your bike and tell us why it’s special.
Here are some of pics of mine and Culver City Native Tribe member Ismael:
Chef Tanya's Orange Leopard Beauty!
Hardcore skullies on Chef Tanya's tires... Don't mess with a biking vegan!
Ismael rides his bike to Native Foods Cafe in Culver City everyday!
What better to do on a day in May than have a "fun"raiser for school gardens? That's exactly what Slow Food Desert Cities chapter did with numerous restaurants in the Coachella Valley yesterday and Native Foods Cafe participated by showing off and introducing to many the slowest food of all, tempeh! My tagline for the day was "Tempeh is so slow, it stops."
The Slow Food movement is all about sustainable and local foods and the worlds greatest sustainable protein food is tempeh, then if you add the word "delectable," while eating a Native Foods Cafe Scorpion Burger,one can begin to understand that saving the planet is easy.
Chef Tanya and the Scorpion bites with homemade tempeh!
All the restaurants had tables set up around the kid's garden display from Cathy Liss' class from Aqua Caliente elementary school. There was a restaurant with a chalk board in the shape of a pig serving pork, this scared me so I took the table farthest away and right next to the musicians! While my voice is hoarse from explaining the beauty of tempeh next to the speaker, the perks were getting to dance while talking about tempeh and was able to explain the cause of the dancing was due to the "happy" spirit that comes about when eating this Indonesian in origin soul food.
Henry Fenwick, food writer for The Desert Sun and avid slow foodie even began to dance after his Scorpion craving was fulfilled!!
Garden girl on her second helping of Native Foods Cafe Scorpion burger sample!
Henry Fenwick, fab food writer, right before he started dancing due to bite of Native Foods Cafe Scopion Burger!
Native Foods Cafe The Native Foods website...yes, where you sign up for the FREE cooking demos with Chef Tanya!
PAWS The Performing Animal Welfare Society rocks and Native Foods celebrates this fabulous group the first Wednesday of each month and by donating 100% of the profits from the Native Tote Bags.
