Green Chef

Breakfast

Yesterday morning I decided I really needed some veggies in my life. Plus I have a bunch of crushed pineapple that needs to be used. No better way to do both of these things than a SIAB! I used

• a small bunch of kale
• handful of spinach
• two frozen mango slices
• 1/3+ cup of crushed pineapple
• 1/3 cup soy milk
• 1 banana
• 2 dates
• green tea, just enough to get things spinning

I topped it all off with some honey oat granola.

Lunch

I was having a bit of a crisis with my second batch of coconut ice cream and spent most of the afternoon running around, checking in with Dad to get some chef to chef counseling, and cursing google until I finally found the dry ice place downtown. Eventually I did get a chance to sit down and eat lunch which was a bowl of lentil soup, vegan italian sausage, and a sandwich thin with earth balance. This lunch reminds me of my Dad's cooking :)

As the clock ticked closer to go time for the Green Chef I started making the carrot coconut garnish which I got the inspiration for from here. I started by shredding two cups of carrots. I used the spiral cutter to get really fine shreds but I'm sure a normal grater would work. Then I heated to a boil in a sauce pan:

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups water

Once that boiled I let it simmer for 2 minutes then added the carrots and simmered for 4 minutes.

I removed all the carrots with a slotted spaghetti spoon and laid them on parchment paper. I measured out 1/2 cup of sugar to sprinkle over the top but I didn't end up using all of it. I also sprinkled 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut and mixed everything around trying to keep an even a layer as possible. I heated the oven to 200 degrees and dried the carrots out for about 8 minutes checking half way to make sure they weren't getting too crisp.
They came out perfect! Sweet and sticky with the perfect firmness.

Green Chef!

The competition is finally here! Kelsey came a little early so I was able to give her my camera while I stayed inside and prepared my dish. She got some great shots like this one of the huge line! Wasn't expecting that!

I'm know gunna blow the surprise but I will just tell you, I didn't win. I was sort of sad about it but it was mostly about the challenge anyways not the prize. I have pictures of the winners though so I will try to fill you in!
My campus really is a beautiful one. There's the view of the lagoon from the line.

I was able to snap a few quick shots of my station before the commotion started.

The food was set up so that as you moved from right to let you got savory entrees and moved into the sweets.

This was actually one of the winners: Carrot Barely Soup served in mini bread bowls with carrot garnishes. I got to taste the soup but only in a plastic cup. I was too busy on the sweet side!

Hard at work.

Don't they look cute? I was so pleased with the way they came out. I just wish we could have gotten a clearer picture. People were going after these babies!
Next to me was one of the other winners: Vegan Carrot Cake Ice Cream.

Gettin vicious!
I garnished each one with love! haha
I was having a hard time keeping up with the demand. But I wasn't complaining :)
On my other side was a really sweet girl who made pineapple carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Ahh if only I weren't a vegan for just one minute! I bet they were delicious.
Carrot Pudding
Another winner: Carrot Jam

Carrot Pancakes
Carrot Cake and in those little cups Carrot Milkshakes

Carrot Sushi!
This was the last of the four winners: Carrot and Chickpea Teriyaki Stir Fry. I got to talk to this boy when the food started running out. He was really nice and his teriyaki sauce was home made. Props!

Spaghetti with carrot sauce


Ahh there are my little babies! One boys exact words were, "When I saw them I thought it was going to be plain and then it kicked me in the mouth". Um...thank you??
Kelsey decided that we could make a cake and just cover it with this stuff and that would be fine by her! Agreed, Kelsey. Agreed.

This was the dish of Brooke, the organizer who convinced me to sign up.
Ahhh so cute!!

This was my little bag for people to vote on my dish.

I had to taste my own dish!

When I had finally run out I went around and tasted some of the others. This was yams with honey glazed carrots. Not too sweet and creamy smooth. Can you come over for Thanksgiving pleeease?

I also got to try this Carrot Pudding which was delicious. Very light, not too sweet, the carrot flavor really came through and was well complimented with the raisins and the little bit of chocolate.

I had to go to work but before I ran out I topped my pudding with some of that carrot cake ice cream. Yum.

Dinner

For some reason I thought I would be getting more of a substantial amount of food at the competition but I was wrong about that one. When I got off work I was famish so I quickly cooked up some of my home made veggie patty mix with my home made pasta sauce.
I was so hungry I didn't even care about trying to make it look pretty.
Hmm... I defnitely had dessert so I must not have loaded the photos yet. I'll get to that tomorrow since it is waaaay past my bedtime. I'm glad I got to share the photos of the competition with you finally and hopefully I will not have to type the word carrot ever again! Ok, at least not for a while. Anyways Hump Day is over and it feels weird to be so close to the end of school. My plate is an over flowing one these days but soon I will be away in foreign lands pondering the meaning of life!

More on that to come ;)

Night!

Carrot Frenzy

Yesterday after class I got straight to the cookin! I needed to get on the prep for the Green Chef competition since my dish was not a quick one. I guess I should tell you what I making huh? I decided to call my recipe "Died and Gone to Carrot Cake Heaven" which is a coconut, macademia nut, ginger, carrot cake layered with ginger infused coconut milk ice cream and garnished with coconut, candied shredded carrot.

My inspiration for the ice cream recipe came from Babbling Blueberry but I adapted it to be vegan and to suit my needs. I started by chopping up 3 0z. of fresh ginger.

I boiled the ginger for two minutes and then drained all the water.

Next I added 3/4 cup evaporated cane juice,1 1/2 cup coconut milk, 1/4 cup soy milk, 1 cup soy creamer. I let this steep for 35 minutes on low heat then switched the heat off when I noticed it starting to bubble too much and let it sit, lid on for the next 25 minutes. Total it was 1 hour of steeping.

Completely unrelated to the ice cream, I have my little sprouters all set up with cheese cloth! I got the step by step directions to do this from The Front Burner under Sprouting 101.

Lunch

For lunch I enjoyed a big ol' bowl of lentil soup. pita with tahini and guac, and a mate mojito soda.
This soda was delicious! It was minty and limey and very refreshing. Plus the green bottle made me feel like I was drinking beer in the afternoon so basically it made me feel hardcore. haha I'm so lame.
Now back to cooking and on to some shredding action.
At some point during the steeping of the ginger business I scooped out 1/4 cup of the mixture and reserved it in the fridge for this very moment. Rather than using eggs like most ice creams, I used arrowroot which has a thickening property. I mixed in two tablespoons but later added a third to the whole batch so when I made round two of all of this I added three all at the same time.

Next I removed the ginger from the pot and turned the heat back on just to re-warm the mixture.
After thoroughly whisking in the arrowroot mixture I strained everything into a pourable bowl using this very fine mesh strainer.
I placed that in the freezer for a quick cool down and got to work on the cake. I got the recipe for this from Vegan With a Vengeance whose author is the writer of the blog The Post Punk Kitchen. I have yet to make a single thing out of her cookbook that hasn't been absolutely amazing and pleasing to vegans and non vegans alike! I had a crazy murder mystery party for my 20th birthday and cooked everything out of her book. It was a feast I still remember slash crave.

Here we have:

• 1 cup pineapple juice (which I actually extracted from a can of crushed pineapple)
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 3/4 cup evaporated cane juice

To the liquids I added the drys which was:

• 2 1/3 cup white whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg

It smelled like carrot cake before the carrots even hit the scene y'all.
And of course, 2 cups of shredded carrots
1/4 cup chopped crystalized ginger,
and 1 cup unsweetened coconut.
Baked it in the oven at 350F for 42 minutes exactly.
Uh...yes, I licked the bowl. Do you even have to ask?

Snack

Once the cake was done and I took it out to cool, I decided it was 'now or never' if I was ever going to get my nails done. I snagged this chocolate cashew cookie Lärabar on the way out.
Definitely a keeper. Not super sweet but rich, bittersweet chocolate flavor.
I didn't want to have my acrylics ripped off and I also didn't want to keep them up so I asked to have them filled down and went with OPI Samoan Sand. I am in love with this color!
Soon as I got back I started the ice cream maker with my chilled coconut mixture. 30 minute spin.
I traced the loaf pan I would be putting my creation in and if you look closely on the cake you can see the outline. (Did you know if you click the pictures they get big? Pretty nifty.)
I cut out the slices from the baking dish and then sliced those in half. A perfect fit.
Those little nubs will not be going to waste. Can you say: taste testers!

Dinner

I was getting hungry, my appetite especially provoked by all the sweetness. I was in no mood to cook outside of my carrot frenzy so I busted out this Kashi frozen entree. These never disappoint and I have had this Black Bean Mango dish before.
I supplemented with a little of my homemade guac and some cholula.
When the ice cream was ready I spread a layer of ice cream evenly on all three of the loafs and topped it with the other slice of the cake. I popped those bad boys in the freezer to set. Kelsey and I split this little guy as a taste tester. One word: deadly.

My friend Tommy came over to get a little studying done before the quiz the next morning so I was a good little hostess and set out some of this curry spice popcorn I made.

I know that this was yesterday and trust me, I would really like to post about today because it was very eventful and fun but I am pooooped! And I have a performance tomorrow which trumps everything....even dishes. Sorry roomies! You know I always end up doing them. And I promise I will, just not tonight.

You know how tired I am? I can feel it in my eyeballs. That's not the usual for me. The other night I had a full on lucid dream where, within the first 30 seconds of my dream I turned to the people I was with and said hey, I'm dreaming right now. I felt totally awake and lucid but I knew that I was dreaming. They were all like, no you're not, come on! Pssh! But I said, Hey watch, I'll prove it. And then I pushed off the ground and started flying. It was the most amazing feeling. I could control my dream!! I've been crossing my fingers every night since then that it happens again cause that was just sick!

Anways, that should only serve as extra motivation for me to get into bed right now! Good night.