Mad About Udon

The University of Ottawa has crappy, crappy, crappy food. Unbelievably bad. It’s like WW2-era, desperately overpriced rations. Thank christ I couldn’t afford the meal plan in first year, else I might have contracted scurvy. Because you can be damn sure I wouldn’t buy a soft, crinkled apple for $1.70. Screw you, Chartwells, you’re not getting a cent of my money!

Where am I going with this? Oh yeah, I once reviewed the food court at Carleton University for a Fulcrum article. Holy crap was it ever good (but expensive). I remember the Moroccan-spiced couscous blew me away. (ALSO THE SOY MILK ON TAP!!!)

Most of the recipes for Moroccan couscous have an extensive list of ingredients. I’m at the point right now, financially, where I can’t spend $5 on tons of new ingredients. So although this recipe might not be crazy authentic, it is damn easy and you probably have most of the ingredients in your cupboard or fridge.

4 tbsp vegan margarine
3/4 cup chopped shallots
3 cups vegatarian stock 
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 cups couscous
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/4 cup currants
3/4 cup shredded zucchini (optional; I just added this because I had it)

In large sauce pan, melt butter.  Add the shallots and cook for 3 minutes over medium heat. Add stock, salt and pepper, raise the heat to high and bring the stock to a boil. Turn off the heat and add the couscous and zucchini; stir. Cover the pan and let it sit for 10 minutes. Add pine nuts and currants, and fluff with a fork

I served the couscous with (counter-clockwise from the couscous): sweet-potato soup, steamed vegetable dim-sum buns from Chinatown, naan for dipping in the soup (not vegan, for O.B.), and dipping sauce for the dim sum buns (1:3 hoisin:sweet-thai-chilli sauces). Perfect for a night in with Lost on DVD!

-Maureen

I really shouldn’t make guacamole so often, because tortilla chips (which couple magnificently with guac, of course) are just so impossible to stop eating.  Tortilla chips + me = bad news bears.

But then along comes Your Vegan Mom who posted the idea of mixing mango and avocado for a dip. I used the same super-simple PC Guacamole mix as I did last time, but this time added one chopped organic mango.

Tengo hambre, amigos!! Mmmmm.

-Maureen

If you don’t live in Canada, go here.

Canadians are lucky enough to have access to the President’s Choice brand, which is marketed as a cheaper, more honest alternative to brand-name products, and is only found in select grocery stores. I am a hard scrutinizer of nurtitional and ingredient labels, and I’m a scientist, and I have always found PC products to be, as I said, honest about what they offer. Moreover, PC has always been insanely quick to market new, fresh, innovative low-cal vegan products that taste great and come at a fair price. For example, PC soy milk, which I started buying almost 8 years ago, is creamy, sweet, and delicious, but has only 80 cal/cup and is the cheapest one on the shelf at $3.49. And unlike other brands which rely on cheezy marketing schemes and cheap, unhealthy ingredients (like oh, I don’t know, a company that starts with K and rhymes with Braft), the good folks at PC seem genuinely interested in making wholesome products.

I came across PC Guacamole Seasoning Mix yesterday. It looks like a jar of salsa and contains all wholesome ingredients; no chemical voodoo. Just add 3 avocados to 3/4 cup mix et voila! Tastes like heaven.

Happy long weekend!

-Maureen

Hi, blog-readers.

I just want to apologize for my prolonged absence from posting. My desktop (which, unike my laptop, “talks” to my digital camera) is full of f-bleeping viruses. I’ve got some good friends like Aly working on the case but unfortunately it’s a huge problem at the moment that I just don’t have the time to deal with. So I’m working from my laptop, whic is f-bleeping slow because Bill Gates is a jerk and Vista is a piece of crap… but ANYWAY…

I do have some pics that I either already had on my photobucket or were taken on another person’s camera. I actually have 9 or 10 amazing vegan photos on my camera (quinoa! steel cut oats! japanese curry! carrot raisin celery salad!) that I can’t wait to share, but because of my little computer problem that take be a couple weeks.

Bean “muffin” from Chinatown bakery in Boston. It was a doughy pastry that they said was dairy- and egg-free, filled with red bean paste (my favourite!) and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

YUM! This is my favourite new dish! It’s just a very basic, very fresh salsa. Dice 1 tomato, then add diced cilantro and jalepeno pepper to taste (I use tons of the former, and trace amount of the latter; it’s actually fine w/o the jalepeno). Serve with a 99c bag of nachos–the perfect size. I can pick up these ingredients on the way home from school/work and have it ready in 5 minutes. Thanks Matt for the recipe.

I recently turned 23 two weeks ago and I had one wish: vegan cupcakes. And not just a couple–LOTS! So I was pleased as punch to receive several batches in the week leading up to my b-day. Vegan cupcakes are amazing, and I spread the love around campus by giving them to friends and co-workers. Picture is the, er, trial batch of chocolate cupcakes (recipe here). The vanilla cupcakes, not pictured, we also divine (recipe here). In this picture, I’m actually lying in bed, wolfing down cupcakes. Ahh, good times.

Please keep visiting Mad About Udon even though we’re a bit slow to update!

-Maureen

I had a Mexican themed meal earlier this week for a few friends. It consisted of black bean burritos with shredded cheese for the omnivores and vegan cheese for the vegans, pineapple salsa, guacamole and sangria. Unfortunately, I was preoccupied with eating and just managed to photograph the guacamole before it was all consumed. I recently acquired a taste for mushrooms and managed to hide little bits of them with the fried black beans, multiple cloves of garlic and onion that I made for the burritos. I am pretty sure that Maureen liked them in spite of the mushrooms ;).

Here is how I usually make my guacamole:

3 mashed avocados
1 diced tomato
2 minced garlic cloves
½ c finely chopped onion
¼ c coarsely chopped cilantro
1 t lime juice
1 t black pepper
1 t onion salt

This recipe has been Danielle approved!

- Aly