Vegan Corn Chowder

 

The other day my friend Greg tweeted out something about good vegan chowder being impossible. Well, I took that as a personal challenge to create something he would deem delicious. Tonight I have created what I (and Eric) believe to be a great alternative to your normal heavy on the cream corn chowder.

Vegan Corn Chowder (inspired by a recipe found in the Joy of Cooking)

• 1 sm. onion medium to small dice
• 2 md. red potatoes medium dice
• 5-6 small or 4 medium ears of corn (remove the kernels, but keep the cob)
• 1 14 oz can light coconut milk
• 1.5 c coconut milk from the carton (like Silk, or So Delicious brand)
• Salt and Pepper TT(to taste)
• Corn puree (recipe follows)

Additions:

You could add some hot sauce, or chopped carrot or celery.

Directions:

In a heavy stockpot, heat a little bit of oil and sauté the onion till soft. Add in the potatoes, milk, coconut milk, and the corn husks (not the kernels) Simmer 15 minutes or until soft. Remove the husks and add in the kernels and corn puree. Simmer another 5 minutes to heat everything through. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Corn Puree

• Half a bag of frozen corn kernels
• 1 cup coconut milk

In a blender, combine kernels and milk, puree until paste texture.

Notes:

Do not skip salting the chowder. If you don’t add salt, it will be much to sweet. Just add some, then try it. Add a little more…see where you like your salt level. The more salt, the less sweet it will be. Also, the corn puree is key in this recipe because it really helps thicken up the soup. I’m sure you could simmer the soup down until it thickens up, but I really like the addition of the puree for even more corn flavor.

I served my chowder with non-vegan cornbread and simple garden salad. Now that fall is almost here, I see this recipe coming around again and again.

Enjoy!!

Back in the kitchen

 

I started back in the kitchen last week at school. T-2 is is much different than T-1, the first kitchen segment. Much more laid back and totally different atmosphere. I know it will get busy and crazy, but I’m really enjoying it so far. We are doing breakfast week, which is pretty fun. Have you ever tried to flip eggs in a pan without break a yolk? It is tough! Not to mention you have to cook them over easy so you cant wait till their almost cooked through before you flip them.

Tomorrow we are having our live fire where we simulate an actual restaurant. Tickets will come in and by teams, we have to cook 8 different dishes ranging from pancakes to oatmeal to all different styles of eggs. I’m pretty excited for it actually. I think it will be tough but so fun!

In other news. I am ready for some fall type weather. We had a goodbye summer grill-out last night and now I am ready to bust out some boots and jeans. Instead we are having 90+ temps for this entire week. Kill me.

And finally. Eric and I camped in Bend last weekend and here is a photo from our trip.

 

Uninspired

 

I am uninspired to blog and I don’t know why. Lots of things have been going on. We moved, had friends in town, worked hard, played hard and next week I get back into the kitchen at school.

I shall try and post something here in the next day or so in more detail. I’m off to meet my friends for a beer!

Cheers!!

Injury city

 

I am having a really tough go of it over here. Everytime I turn around I am really hurting myself. First on Saturday, we had this.

The on Monday, I did this with my bike pedal.

Yeah, that hurt. Then tonight I did this.

No bloody photo because it was bleeding so bad that I needed to get a band aide on it asap. It’s pretty deep to…but I don’t think deep enough for stiches.  How did I do that one?

Get the picture? This is pretty frustrating because I can’t bike really well with the knee injury, it pulls the skin that is scabbed over and makes it bleed. I can’t run with the ankle injury because my shoes rub on the cut and make it bleed. And now I can’t do any downward dogs because my hand aches.

I am a mess.

Goal Setting part 2

 

Remember that post I wrote a few weeks back about goal setting? If not, here it is again.

Well I subscribe to the Lululemon blog on my google reader, and they recently wrote a post about setting goals that I loved reading. I thought I would copy and paste some of it here, but please visit their site to read the full article. It’s got some really good info on it.

1. Possibility

Set visions & goals in possibility and that are beyond what is likely to happen.

2. Vision

Your vision for your ideal life will drive your goals.

3. Balance

It is important to balance your vision & goals in the major domains of your life.

4. Audacity

Be bold and set goals that are a challenge for you.

5. Format

Formatting your goals in the correct way gives you the greatest likelihood of achieving them.

6. Integrity

Once your goals are set, consider how you incorporate them into your daily life to achieve them.

Here is the link. And really, go check it out and read the full article. I have downloaded their goal sheet and am trying to work on some of it. It’s hard to figure out where I want to be in 10 years, but something that I think I need.

People keep asking me what I want to do when I graduate Culinary School and I usually just tell them that I don’t know yet. Maybe I will just carry about my goal sheet and show it to them next time I am asked. ha. 

Monday.

 

I ran my half marathon and my prize was banged up knees.

Now I am taking some time off. Well, just backing down from intense training for a bit. Trying to let my body get back to working properly.

Our apartment looks like this.

Yeah….we need to move.

It is a gorgeous sunny day outside, and I have spent all my day inside. Fail.

I was going to go to yoga tonight, but I can’t bend my knee all the way. Double fail.

New classes start on Wednesday. Four more weeks till I am back in the kitchen. Excited.

I got acupunctured on the palms of my hands today, it hurt.

It is only August 1st and this month is already shaping up to be busy. Yikes.

Happy Monday.

A wake up call

I got some startling news back yesterday. Well…let me back up a sec. I have been seeing an acupunturist for the past month or so, and right before we left for Vancouver, I went in to get some blood work done. Checking different things like thyroid, cholesterol, hormone levels, things like that.

Well, I got the results back yesterday and lets just say they leave a lot to be desired. I am off the charts low in some areas and high in others. Actually, there wasn’t much good news in the blood work. Well, besides the fact that everything can be fixed and I’m not going to die.

I thought I ate a pretty good diet, but turns out there are things I could work on. I have been advised to cut out sugar, (goodbye Fro-Yo) reduce my wheat intake, up my protein like whoa, and ease back on dairy (not that I was eating that a lot anyways).

I am taking a whole slew of herbs and supplements. 7 to be exact. Two to three times a day.

After my half marathon race on Saturday, I have been advised to slow down my training, run at a much slower pace to lower my heart rate and take life a little bit easier until I get things leveled out again.

I was talking to my mom and Eric about how nice it feels to know that there is something medically wrong, and it’s not just all in my head. I have a treatment plan, a course of action and I’m excited to start feeling completely like myself again.