by Sarah on July 20, 2010
Oh boy, these are SO good! After you eat one of these you’ll never ever buy them from the supermarket again!!
Whole Wheat Flour Tortillas
Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose four
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons canola oil
3/4 cup water (if you want them a little fluffier you can use soy or almond milk instead of the water)
Directions:
Mix together the flours, baking powder, and salt.
Add canola oil and water and stir until a loose ball is formed.
Knead on a floured surface until the dough is firm.
Put the dough in a bowl and cover with a damp towel and let rest for 20 minutes.
Divide dough into 10 balls. Cover and let rest for 10 more minutes.
Roll out each ball on a floured surface with a rolling pin.
Cook each tortilla in a cast iron skillet about 20 seconds on each side.
Devour tortillas!
Enjoy the tortillas- they’re awesome!
by Sarah on July 17, 2010
This is a super delicious potato salad! It tastes just like my mom makes, but it’s vegan! Keep in mind that it’s a TX style potato salad, so it’s mustardy. If you don’t like a mustardy potato salad, well then just get the hell out of Texas ya pansy! 
Texas Style Potato Salad
Ingredients:
2 1/2 pounds Russet potatoes, cubed
1/2 of a small yellow onion, finely chopped
3 Tablespoons chopped pimento, drained
3 Tablespoons dill pickle relish
1/3 cup vegan mayonnaise (I like Vegenaise)
1/3 cup yellow mustard
salt and pepper
Directions:
Boil potatoes until just tender (about 10 mins). Drain potatoes and cool. Meanwhile combine onion, pimento, relish, mayonnaise, and mustard in a bowl. Pour mixture over potatoes and stir gently to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Tastes best if refrigerated for a few hrs before serving.
Enjoy!
by Sarah on July 16, 2010
I looove beans! I’ve done a post about beans before but it was a bit on the silly side, so I decided to do another one with more facts and less playing around (well, maybe just a little playing around).
Not only do legumes provide you with protein and fiber, but they are also a great source of complex carbohydrates, along with B vitamins, iron, and phytonutrients. They also promote a healthy digestive tract, may reduce your risk of some types of cancer and can help control diabetes and maintain healthy blood glucose levels.
So, what is a legume?
A legume is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or a fruit of these specific plants. A common name for this type of fruit is a pod. Some well known legumes include alfalfa, clover, peas, beans, lentils, lupins, mesquite, carob, soy, and peanuts. There are several classes of legumes including forage, grain, blooms, pharmaceutical/industrial, fallow/green manure, and timber species. The kind we eat are grain legumes. Grain legumes are cultivated for their seeds, and are also called pulses(many other cultures call them pulses instead of beans or legumes like we do). The seeds are used for human and animal consumption or for the production of oils for industrial uses. Grain legumes include beans, lentils, lupins, peas, and peanuts.
Legumes contain relatively low quantities of the essential amino acid methionine, which makes it an incomplete protein (meaning that it is missing one or more of the essential amino acids). Is it a big deal that it’s not a complete protein? NOPE! As long as you eat a balanced diet that has a variety of different foods you will get plenty of protein in your diet from different sources(yes, even if you are a vegan- but this is a different post for a different time).
So what do you do with them?
look in the recipe section of my blog and you’ll see several recipes! My favorites are Brown Rice and Lentils and Spicy Black Bean Soup!!
any vegetarian or vegan cookbook will have a plethora (don’t you just love that word?!) of recipes that feature legumes! My favorite is the Old Fashioned Lentil Loaf in The Vegan Table. Dal is also delicious if you can find a recipe for that!
The easiest way to prepare them are to cook them very simply in a big pot of water with some salt and pepper! See this post for details on preparing beans! (this post makes me laugh because it was way before I ever thought of becoming a vegan)
And that’s all she wrote!! Have a great one and go eat some beans!!
by Sarah on July 16, 2010
Pomegranate Martini (makes 1 drink)
Ingredients:
1 oz vodka
1/2 oz Cointreau orange liquer
3 oz pomegranate juice
Directions:
Combine ingredients with some ice in a shaker and shake away. Strain into a cocktail glass. Drink!
by Sarah on July 16, 2010
I picked up some green tomatoes at the Farmer’s Market last weekend, and the first thing I thought when I saw them was fried green tomatoes!!!
The basic recipe for fried green tomatoes is pretty darn simple. Slice the tomatoes. Dip in milk or buttermilk, then flour, then egg, then cornmeal. Fry in some oil.
My conundrum lies in how to make it vegan… the milk part is easy. It’s the egg part that is a little more tricky. I couldn’t decide weather I wanted to replace the egg with flax or try the Ener-G egg substitute. I decided to go with the flax because flax is super good for you with all its omega-3 deliciousness.
So here’s what I came up with…
Fried Green Tomatoes (vegan style)
Ingredients:
2 or 3 green tomatoes
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup soymilk or almond milk
2 Tablespoons ground flax + 6 Tablespoons water, whisked together
salt and pepper
Directions:
Line up an assembly line of each of these in bowls: soymilk, flour, flax + water mixture, cornmeal.
Slice your green tomatoes.
Dip them in the soymilk, then coat in flour. Then into the flax mixture, then the cornmeal.
Then either fry them in a little oil in a cast iron skillet (I used canola oil), or you can can give them a spritz from an olive oil mister and bake them. (next time I will bake them, but this time I wanted to see what they would taste like fried the good old fashioned way. I’m usually not much of a fryer though- it’s too greasy and too messy for me.)
Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper right after you take them out of the frying pan while they are still hot.
Serve ‘em up however you like- we’re simple, we like ours with a little ketchup. But if you are wanting to get a little fancy, I’d say they would be delicious served over some greens with a drizzle of that really delicious aged, syrupy balsamic vinegar! Ooh, or even over some grits with that same drizzle of balsamic- yum!
by Sarah on July 12, 2010
Hey boys and girls- something exciting is coming to the blog!! Go here to find out more info and enter your email address and my blogs title (sarahsnacks.com) and you could win something cool! Do it!
Sarah + Farmer’s Market = one VERY happy vegan!!
I think this is the first time I’ve been to a farmer’s market since I’ve been a grown up. My mom used to drag take us to this little farm stand place in Cleburne all the time when we were kiddos. And there’s a produce place here in Joshua (Parks Produce), but he doesn’t always have a huge amount of stuff and most of it’s not local. But the guy that owns it is really nice and I shop there quite often, because even if his produce isn’t always local I’m still supporting a local business and that makes me happy.
But it’s nothing like the experience you get at a real live farmer’s market! It wasn’t ginormous but it was pretty awesome. (top secret vegan fact… we don’t need to do drugs- we get plenty high when we come upon mass quantities of beautiful vegetables!!) Oh what fun I had wandering and looking at all the pretty veggies and handmade goods. And ALL of the stuff there is all produced within 150 miles of Fort Worth- ALL completely local stuff! I also got some advice about my zucchini from a nice farmer dude(I’m having trouble with my poor little zucchini plants!). He said that a good organic fertilizer for your plants is coffee grounds- anyone know anything about this? I might give it a try and see what happens.
Anyway, I could have very well bought everything. Yes that’s right- I said everything! ;) But alas, I’m not made of money, so I stuck to around $30 worth of goodies. And here’s what I got for my moo-lah…
These are the BEST blueberries I’ve ever had! I’m serious.
Green tomatoes! I’ve already made fried green tomatoes- recipe coming soon!!
Homemade jams!! I don’t know what I thought I would need Jalapeno Raspberry jam for, but I just couldn’t resist! And who doesn’t love blackberry jam?! I think I’m going to be busting into this one in the morning! Nom nom nom!
Bell peppers. I have some growing in my little garden, but they’re not quite ready yet. These’ll tide me over until they are hopefully.
mmmmm! Peaches! They taste like little pieces of heaven! (I’ve already used most of them actually- we chowed down on a blueberry peach cobbler about an hour ago and it was fantastic!)
My little okra plant has only given me three little okras so far, and they’re hanging out in the freezer waiting for more of their friends to join the party. So until then, some lovely okra from the farmer’s market will have to do!
Same thing goes for my zucchini and squash. I think the summer heat is just eating them up- they shrivel up and die before they are getting a chance to get much bigger than a few inches. Poor little things!
All in all I had a fun afternoon- after I got home and unloaded all my goodies I made some fried green tomatoes and a blueberry peach cobbler. Then did a little homework. And now I’m listening to all the stupid people with their fireworks and the poor dogs are going nuts. I love 4th of July but I hate fireworks.
Anyhoo- new recipes coming soon. Get excited!
This soup is so delicious! It makes a nice big pot of soup, so you can keep munching it for days! I think this is an old weight watchers recipe- I’ve had it forever, so who knows where it came from.
Here it is! Make it now- you can thank me later!
Spicy Black Bean Soup
Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 (15 oz) cans of black beans, undrained
big pinch of red pepper flakes
1 tsp ground cumin
14 oz vegetable broth (I go a little shy on this- I like my soup a little more on the thick side)
1 can of rotel (if you don’t like rotel, you can just use a can of plain diced tomatoes or fire roasted tomatoes would be quite tasty as well)
1 can yellow corn, drained (frozen or fresh corn would work well too)
Instructions:
Sautee onion and garlic until onions are soft. (about 5 mins)
Put one can of beans in the blender; add sautéed onions and garlic, red pepper flakes, and cumin. Cover and blend until smooth. Pour mixture back into stockpot.
Place second can of beans and vegetable broth into blender and blend until smooth. Add to stockpot.
Stir in third can of black beans (do not puree first), rotel, and corn into pot. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 20-25 mins.
Yields about 1 1/2 cups per serving.
Favorite toppings: salsa, Daiya vegan cheese, vegan sour cream, crushed up tortilla chips
by Sarah on June 28, 2010
First and foremost- let’s get this pasta salad going! It’s so good, and best of all it’s amazingly SIMPLE!! And who doesn’t love a good pasta salad?!
So take your choice of pasta. I used farfalle (the little bowties). And I used the whole box.
Cook it according to package directions. Let it cool off.
Then take a jar of Artichoke Salad (it’s got artichokes, red peppers, and olives in it). Save some of the stuff that it’s marinated in. Give it a rough chop, and add it to the cooled pasta.
I also added some sliced black olives to mine because I’m cool like that.
Then add several tablespoons of the marinade from the artichoke salad. To your own personal taste level. Then add a little salt and pepper and you’re done! Let it hang out a bit so that the pasta can soak up the flavor of the marinade before you chow down. If you want to be a show off you could add some fresh herbs to it. I was just too darn lazy to walk outside and pick some out of the garden.
Easy huh?!
And so pretty!
Other than this, there’s not much going on around here today. It’s raining- YAY! My plants are going to be SOOOO happy!
I need to work on a project for my Women’s Nutrition class but I keep putting it off. I have to say that I’m kind of disappointed in this class. I thought that it would be far more interesting than it actually is. And I also thought that we would be learning about…oh…I don’t know…women’s nutrition? Instead it turned out to be almost exactly like my food and culture class. hmmmm….
Anyhoo- I’m headed to the kitchen to make some yummy chocolate chip cookies for the husband. 
Have a good one!!
by Sarah on June 26, 2010
My wonderful husband took me out for a lovely birthday afternoon yesterday! We had a blast!
We went to a vegan restaurant right here in Fort Worth. Spiral Diner. It’s the only vegan restaurant in the metroplex, so it’s a good thing that it’s AMAZING!!!! I can’t tell you how refreshing it was to just open a menu at a restaurant and order whatever I wanted. I didn’t have to ask if anything had any lard in it. I didn’t have to say without the cheese. And I didn’t have to have plain lettuce! (Which actually happened to me at a restaurant once- a steakhouse. I didn’t have a choice but to go there- it was mother’s day, so it wasn’t my decision. Can you believe that they didn’t have a single salad dressing that didn’t have milk or cheese products in it?!) This was just a nice relaxing lunch. And the food was seriously amazing!
Hubby got the Cowboy Burger! It looked really good! He said it was fab!
Cowboy Burgers make husbands happy!
And I got the Taco Salad! Holy salad batman!! This was GOOD! It had lettuce, corn, black beans, peas, carrots, their Mexican Quinoa, and avocado! Topped with sour cream, with salsa and ranch on the side! Heaven. on. earth!
I can’t wait to go back!
Then we wondered around the mall while we digested. I went to origins and got some fun face stuff.
Then I got my nose pierced! For reals!
I’ve been wanting to do it for FOREVER, so I figured my 30th bday was a pretty good reason to stop being a wussy and do it!
It hurt, I’m not going to lie. But it only hurt for a few seconds, then it stung for a bit and then I was good to go! It’s a little sore today, but I just got a hole punched through my nose with a big-ass needle, so that’s to be expected right?
Anyhoo- it’s super duper CUTE! And I’m SO glad I did it!
See?
And on the way home my hubby bought me a new cookbook! :) I love that dude!
Here’s what I got…
I’m going to try a recipe tonight- can’t wait!!
I’m headed to the grocery store now- catch ya on the flip side!!
