Tasty Tuesday: Trying new things

RE-POST: original post was from a few months back!

Yesterday was a day of trying new things. I love trying new recipes and Kat has been wanting to try one recipe in particular. She loves crepes and we make them every now and then. We have some friends who are trying to adopt a Vegan diet and we have some other friends who are VERY Vegan. Well when Kat was hanging out with the first family one day, they made Vegan Crepes which she said were really good and she wanted to try them sometime. I was all for it so yesterday we gave them a try. Can I just say they were amazing and I ate FIVE of them. Kat and hubby added fruit to theirs, I just like mine with lemon juice and a touch of powdered sugar.

Now what excited me about this recipe is that the second family we know who are VERY vegan have a daughter that is a friend of my daughters. She has stayed the night a few times and really cooking for her isn't hard because often we eat things that work for a Vegan diet (veggie/bean burritos, stirfry, etc..). I was excited because this recipe is something I can make for breakfast when she comes to visit.

Recipe for Vegan Crepes (taken from Vegan Yum Yum website and iphone app..which is also where I got the above picture). (Printable Recipe)

1/2 c. soy milk
2/3 c. water
1/4 c. Earth Balance, melted (I used my Smart Balance spread and it worked fine)
1 c. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. sugar (for sweet crepes optional)
2 Tbs. vanilla (for sweet crepes)
2 Tbs. water (to thin if needed...we did not need to thin it)

Combine all ingredients and refrigerate for 30 minutes (we didn't do this). Remove from fridge. Use either a crepe pan or a non-stick skillet and heat it before adding batter. I did not need additional cooking spray or butter (but use it if you find the batter sticks) Place about 2-3 Tbs. worth of batter on center of pan and quickly swirl pan around so batter spreads out thinly. Cook approximately 1-2 minutes per side (lightly browned). For me it's all about eyeballing. Eventually I got to where I knew about how much was needed.

You can make these crepes and add vegetable fillings as well.

The other thing I did yesterday was re-vamp one of my old favorite recipes. It has been years since I made Broccoli Wild Rice Soup. I decided it was time to make it again but this time I wanted to do it a bit different. The original recipe is perfect if you're in a hurry so I will add that recipe and then share what I did differently.

It was a perfect meal yesterday since Kat had a cold, wet soccer practice and I knew she'd appreciate something hot and creamy for dinner.


Recipe:

1 pkg. chicken and wild rice mix
5 c. water
1 pkg. frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
1 medium carrot, shredded
2 tsp. dried minced onion
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 pkg. cream cheese
additional cheese if desired (cheddar)

In a large saucepan, combine rice, contents of seasoning packet and water; bring to a boil. Reduce head; Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring once. Stir in broccoli, carrot and onion. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in soup and cream cheese. Cook and stir until cheese is melted and soup is heated through.


NOW For my variation and why I did it: I decided when I was at the store that I wanted to skip the "boxed" wild rice and go for the full meal deal in bulk. I found a great mix of wild rice, brown rice and wheat berries. When I got home I realized I didn't have frozen broccoli but I did have fresh so I opted for that. I also used fresh onion, not dried.

So, in place of the box of rice, I used 1 c. wild rice and one chicken bouillon cube for the seasoning. I also added some garlic powder, onion powder and pepper. I did the remaining directions as listed above but I cooked it a bit longer (maybe 30 minutes before adding the veggies. I also left the broccoli out till the last 20 minutes of cooking (I didn't want it to get too soggy). This variation took about 20-30 minutes longer but tasted the same as the original recipe so I will more than likely stick to this variation of it.

I'm linking up with Tasty Tuesday at Beauty and Bedlam! Head over for more great ideas.
With Joy UNquenchable,