Vegetarian Meal | Healthy and Sane

Making crepes at Dore Creperie (and at home!)

September 6th, 2011

I can’t believe it’s Tuesday already. TUESDAY!! [Sorry for shouting.] Looks like I took the whole “long weekend” thing very seriously, which included time away from the blog. What can I say, when I take time away, I am really away. I think it’s healthy and sane (yes, I went there!) – don’t you?

Prior to my long weekend break (during which, in case you’re wondering… Adam and I hosted a bbq gathering for all of our friends, and then spent a full day lounging around the house – watching tv and eating leftovers, not bad… not bad at all), I did do something blog related and very fun. I took a crepe making class at the local pop-up creperie in Boston.

Dore Creperie was founded by Greg just a few months ago and will be at its current location downtown for the next 5 months… until they move and pop up at another spot. I don’t frequent Boston’s downtown often but I have heard buzz about Dore and was very excited to be invited to a crepe making class there, especially since I just learned how to make Russian crepes. Wanna see what making crepes entales? Come, come!!

Elizabeth organized the whole thing and Megan and Lindsey also attended the class with me. We started the class with a quick history of crepes, while tasting historically inspired combos like honey and figs…

… and fried egg and tomatoes

We also tried the very early crepe batter from buckwheat flour and water. I actually thought it was interesting in its own way (earthy for sure!) but the more modern buckwheat crepe (which has eggs and butter) I am sure is a lot tastier and less “crunchy granola.”

We fast-fowarded to the current classic dessert crepe with nutella and strawberrries.

Drooooooool

Oh yeah, while listening to Greg talk, we sipped on banana and nutella milk shakes. So indulgent. So incredible.

Let’s just say I wasn’t hating this. At all.

Time to get our hands dirty!

Megan felt way too comfortable with a gigantic bag of flour. Lindsey was a little more apprehensive…

Oh, Megan also taught me how to crack eggs with one hand. Very exciting. I put those skillzzzzzzz to use already and feel like a pro every time (I’m going to get to 3 at once at some point, Megan, just give me time!)

Here is how you make a basic crepe batter:

1. Whisk eggs, then slowly add milk

This was 10 eggs + 10 cups of milk… in summary: a lot!

2. Add the egg/flour mixture to all-purpose flour (1 cup of flour to each egg and a cup of milk)

3. Whisk it all together, then add melted butter (2 T/egg)

Let rest for 30 minutes.

Basically the proportions are 1 egg to 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of flour, 2 tablespoons of melted butter. This would make a few crepes. Definitely make at least 2 or 3 times that!

Ok, time to use the fancy crepe pans… pour some dough in the middle of the pan, then spread around the pan.

I failed ~~at life~~ at this step miserably. Look at attempt #1:

Attempt #2 (you can actually patch up the whole with a few more drops of batter – much needed in my case)

… there are a few more undocumented ones. Luckily I had help (and making them at home is waaaaay easier - see my picture tutorial here).

Much better! [That means I didn't make it, ha!]

Filling them with every imaginable combo was definitely the best part!

Brie, fig spread and prosciutto

Egg, feta and sundried tomato

Chocolate, graham crackers and stawberries…

We made dozens of combos – these are just a few!

I could really get used to this job

Before going home, we got some of our batter to-go. I had dozens of crepe filling combos in my brain but decided to finally try the mushroom crepe cake Shannon blogged about a few months ago (I made 1/2 a cake as you can see).

Cheesy mushrooms between layers of herbed crepes… buttery, rich. Delicious!

I had such a fun time learning about the evolution of crepes and trying my hand at using those crazy crepe pans. What should I use my sweet batter for? I’m thinking of sauteed peaches and salted caramel. How does that sound??

How did you spend your long weekend? Did you have a chance to unplug?

PS – Just noticed that LivingSocial has discounted crepe classes at Dore. Funny coincidence – if you’re local, I’d recommend it!

Dinner party, vegan style

June 13th, 2011

Sorry for the sporadic posting recently. I’ve been working on living a full and guiltless life lately which means that if other activities take over with no time for blogging, as much as I miss it, I’m okay with it. All of it. It’s the happiest I’ve been in a really long time and I’m embracing it! [PS – if you just type in the URL to see if there are new posts, I know it may be frustrating to not know if there is going to be something new and checking back over and over with no good news. May I suggest email alerts? Hopefully that makes things easier and I do hope my schedule normalizes soon).

Now onto something fun I did this weekend. The weather was dreadful (stoopid rain) but we still had a chance to eat at East by Northeast – a sustainable Chinese tapas place, which happens to be on my 30 by 30 list. The place was adorable but the lighting was not good for pictures so Adam and I happily enjoyed a photo-free dinner.

I continued to plow through my list (ok not exactly “plow”) by inviting Josh and Melissa over for dinner. I’m totally crushing my goal of 12 dinners this year (this one was #3 already in less than a month! Told ya I’ve been busy!!).

Scenes from the kitchen…

[Tofu pressing]

Melissa is vegan so dinner was a 3 course vegan meal. On the menu:

[Recipes linked to the names]

I don’t think that having a few friends over for dinner needs to be a big production, but if it’s the weekend and I have time, I love making things a little more special. I’ve mentioned it before but I just love browsing through recipes and having a theme in mind (vegan in this case) was actually fun.

Tofu and mushroom lettuce cups

I doubled the recipe to make sure we have enough and it made A LOT.

This was quick and very flavorful. Would make for a really great entrée over rice.

While the guys were chatting it up, I went back to the kitchen to make the hand pies which… were a pain in the ass. Instead of butter (not vegan) the dough had coconut oil which was pretty hard to work with. It was either rock solid or almost mushy the second it started to warm up. I persevered and made 5 large and 1 mini hand pie and crossed my fingers that it would bake up into something edible.

Oh it did.

While the coconut oil was hard to work with, it made these taste so much more special. It had the texture similar to any short dough (given the high fat content) but had a natural sweetness that was very appealing. Btw, I added some black beans to the filling (and omitted the onions of course) which was a great decision. Some hot sauce over the top and these were lip-smacking good. We devoured them within minutes! (I saved the dough and the remaining filling and am determined to make a few more pies for me and Adam to enjoy later this week). I’d make these again and see if practice makes perfect Smile

Dessert time!

[How cute is my ice cream container???]

Cookies fresh from the oven with homemade ice cream. Does it get any better than that??! It doesn’t. I speak from experience. Smile

I used dark vegan chocolate chips instead of white, and dried cranberries instead of cherries for the dough balls and am very happy with the results. Just like the peanut butter chocolate chip dough balls the dough was quite dry, but the taste was nothing short of amazing. Pea Daddy said “Those will be gone by midnight”… well ours were gone by 10! Open-mouthed smile

The vegan ice cream was delicious as well. If you put it side by side with the “cows milk” ice cream, it wouldn’t win but in a class by itself, it was very delicious (and well, if you’re vegan – obviously that taste test would never even happen). I LOVED the cookie dough made of cashews, dates and chocolate chips (larabar-style) and will make those again just for a random dessert soon for sure (I ran out of cashews, otherwise I would have doubled the recipe right there!). Nice job, Lauren! Smile

Happy bellies all around. Checking things off the list has never been tastier Smile with tongue out

I realized at the end that we never took people photos so here are Josh and Melissa with their “party favors” (aka a box from our popchips stash)

Haha, don’t they look like proud (popchips) parents or something?

All right, that’s enough rambling. Say hello in the comments if anything strikes your fancy Winking smile See you soon!

Quick meals with a little premade help

March 4th, 2011

I was in a weird mood yesterday as the work day was coming to an end and of course to make myself feel “better” I thought about finding a bakery and enjoying a cupcake or perhaps some caramel filled chocolates (yes, my cravings get specific!). I knew, however, that those treats would not actually fulfill me as the problem was with something else (I think I was just tired and overwhelmed with my to-do list) so I opted to come home and relax while making dinner. Something simple. Something healthy. Something that would make my body feel like I’m taking care of it.

I actually had plans to make this curried chickpeas and broccoli dish but when I saw this Seeds of Change tikka masala sauce in my pantry as I reached for the chickpeas, I decided to make dinner even simpler. What could be easier than 3 ingredients with a little premade help?

I browned the chickpeas a bit, then threw broccoli pieces and the sauce into the pan to simmer.

Red quinoa was cooking on the burner next to it and everything was ready in 10 minutes.

[Sorry for the picture, the steam coming off the curry was making everything blurry!]

I loved that someone else took the time to let the flavors develop and all I had to do was dump the sauce over some protein and veggies and 10 minutes later a real meal was ready! Smile Unfortunately this particular sauce had so many onion chunks I was completely appalled – I dug them out like a little kid between bites, which did not make for a pleasurable dinner experience and actually ruined my mood. The search for the perfect tikka masala sauce continues!

Next time I’m in no mood to cook, I would love to turn to some premade “shortcuts” for a semi-homemade dinner. Do you have any favorites? While I always prefer homemade, convenience sometimes wins. I often turn to bottled salad dressings, packaged granola bars, etc.

Oh, and if there is jarred sauce you know of or you have a tikka masala recipe that tastes like the real thing at restaurants, I’d love to hear about it! It’s my favorite!!

For more from me, check out my post on kotleti over at Russian Bites.