Wednesday, February 8, 2012

"To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art." - La Rochefoucauld

Vegan meatball alternative "Bean-far beanballs" 
(my own touch, tee-hee)
I haven't blogged from my creative space inside myself, my own abi, in a while. i've been feeling discouraged by a lot of things, namely my lack of creativity, and how i've been comparing my small little blog to the ones with over a thousand followers... and that doesn't work! i realized one cool thing i have going is my vegan diet, and since i refuse to eat processed foods, its getting pretty creative! so here goes, i hope i can post a recipe often, and tell me what you think! i wonder if i can do a recipe and something else?? well i'll see! xx, enjoy. i really liked this one.
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 I found an amazing vegan cookbook called Veganomicon. i adapted their "beanball" recipe. 

what you'll need (according to my successful adaptation):
- 20 oz of cooked kidney beans (around a cup and a quarter). i used both kidney beans and white beans, but be careful: the white beans make them fall apart more easily
- 1 tablespoon of soy-sauce
-2 tablespoons of tomato paste (freeze to keep any unused for later recipes)
-2 tablespoons olive oil 
-2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
-a little less than 1/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest ( i found it to be strong in the mix, so if you love lemons, go for as much as you'd like)
-1/2 cup bread crumbs ( i recommend medium sized, not finely grated)
-1/4 cup whole wheat flour
-1/2- 1/4 teaspoon of your favorite flavoring, such as parsely, dried oregano, dried thyme


what you do:
mash the kidney beans in a mixing bowl with a fork or other medium until you have a smooth mix (BUT make sure you can still tell they are kidney beans, don't mash too much)
-add the soy sauce, tomato paste, olive oil, garlic, lemon zest, bread crumbs, flour, herbs 
-use a fork to mix everything together
-knead the mixture until it is well-blended and firm
-roll the balls into walnut-sized balls

to cook: 
-preheat large skillet over medium heat with about 1/4 inch of olive oil
-cook for around 15 minutes. 
(-the recipe book says you can coat them in marinara sauce after cooking once, then throw them back in for another 15 minutes. i didn't do this) 





sorry the pictures are  a mess, my canon goes for a holiday in my house every couple of days! 

ENJOY! 

5 comments:

  1. Mmmmm yum! I love Italian food! =)

    http://pinkchampagnefashion.blogspot.com/

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  2. I've actually considered going vegan for a week, just to try it. I thought I would be adventurous this year and eat vegetarian one week, followed by one week of vegan eating. I think it would be a good experience, and that it would broaden by pallet. That being said, thank you for widening my palette here!

    As for feeling uninspired, I will tell you this: it will happen. I've been blogging for nearly three years now, and I still only have about 100 followers. It takes time and patience, and all of us, I repeat, ALL of us, feel discouraged at some point. If you stick around long enough, you will see blogs disappear and change, revert and come back. You'll see writers address their "inability" to be creative. You'll see less posts, then bursts of inspiration. Bloggers will burn themselves out, overwork themselves with sponsors and comments. We all do it. Just stay strong and stick with it. You will find your blog niche. It took me two and a half years to be comfortable with what I am at (and I faced many of the same jealousies as you). Have faith, my dear! Stick with it.

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  4. In case you didn't come back and see a reply (stupid Blogger and its non notifications), I thought I'd pop back and leave another comment.

    ...no, I don't have a Flickr. I did for awhile, but I actually deleted it. It was weird for me, for whatever reason. In the end, since I do a few side photography jobs, I ended up with a Facebook page. Pretty much anything you see there is on my blog as well.

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