The most perfect sandwich, ever.
January 11, 2011 at 2:21 pm | Posted in baking, cooking, dehydrator, Life, vegan, vegetarian | 1 CommentTags: baking, cookies, dehydrator, hummus, jerky, prasadam, seitan, tempeh, tofu, vegan
No really, this is the most perfect sandwich I have ever had. After eating this particular sandwich I realized that I really can be vegan the rest of my life. The sandwich I am talking about is the Hummus, Tempeh, and Cucumber Wrap out of Skinny Bitch in the Kitch. These Skinny Bitches know whats up too as every recipe that I have used out of this book is easy and foolproof. This was my first vegan cookbook, back when I didn’t know what seitan was. No really, one of the recipes calls for seitan and I bought tempeh. It took me an entire year to figure out why the recipe came out so bad. My husband makes the best hummus, he is the Hummus Master and I made the tempeh. I guess that makes me the Tempeh Mastah. Basically the sandwich is a hummus wrap filled with cucumber, tomato, and tempeh. (The book has cucumber, lettuce, and tempeh.) We wrapped them in warmed whole wheat tortillas. I steamed the tempeh before I cut and fried it in the spices. Steaming tempeh before use reduces some of the bitterness and makes it more ready to absorb flavors. Steaming tempeh also gives it an undeniably moist and delicious texture. The spices and flavoring stuck nicely to the tempeh forming a tasty crust.
Fried tempeh.
Worth the effort.
I am currently making tofu jerky in the new dehydrator that I got for Xmas. It’s not done yet, but it will be soon. Well I hope so because I don’t want to have to stay up all night waiting for it. It’s been in the dehydrator for almost four hours. I have tempeh in the marinade right now that I plan on dehydrating overnight, I did not steam it before marinading as I want the jerky to have a chewy texture. I am also afraid that steaming it might cause it to fall apart in the dehydrator.
Tofu jerky in the dehydrator.
Here is the recipe I found online. I kept seeing it everywhere so I figured this must be the “official” vegan jerky recipe. Then I found it that it’s by my vegan fashion heroine Sara Kramer out of How It All Vegan. I still don’t own any of her cookbooks, but my house smells like jerky and I can’t honestly understand why I don’t yet. This will have to change sometime soon.
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 3 to 4 tbsp liquid smoke
- 1/8 cup water
- 1 tbsp onion powder (devotees use hing instead of garlic and onion powder, about a tsp.)
- 1 tsp garlic powder or 1 clove crushed fresh garlic
- 1 tbsp fresh ground black pepper
- 1 tsp agave
- 1 pound firm or extra firm tofu
In other food news I ate the most delicious prasadam bagel for breakfast this morning. Thank you Aarti. 
It was a sweet little mini bagel. I now wish all bagels came in that size as I didn’t have to slice it to make it fit in the toaster. And I covered it in Toffuti Better than Cream Cheese.
Mmmm, prasadam...
Being on vacation has been wonderful. It’s enabled me to relax, center myself, and detox from caffeine and oodles of processed foods. (Thank you evil yet convenient work vending machines.) This vacation has enabled me to spend some much needed time with my husband to as he took this week off with me. I have been working almost non stop since our honeymoon ended. The last six months have passed very fast and I don’t plan on letting this year pass nearly as fast. I am going to stop and smell the roses more often, or in this case stop and smell the Toll House Cookies.
Gooey....
I used the “official” Toll House Cookies recipe off the internet but instead of eggs I substituted flax seed meal and water and I added about a teaspoon of baking powder. They rose nicely in contrast to last time where they barely rose at all. Last time I made these cookies I used Egg Replacer mix and they were extremely dry so I believe the flax seeds and baking powder were a better choice but not the correct one. The cookies were crumbly this time and had a nice mealy taste to them due to the flax but they were not dry and hard. Next time I bake these cookies I will add apple sauce to moisten them up and see how that goes. If that fails I will substitute out the flax seeds and apple sauce with plain soy yogurt and see how they come out.
Here is the recipe.
Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies:
2 1/4 Cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup soft butter (margarine)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs (I used powdered Energy egg replacer)
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup nuts (I left these out)
Combine flour, soda, and salt.
Beat butter, both sugars, and vanilla in a large bowl. Add the egg substitute and beat once more. Slowly add the flour mixture until well combined. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
Drop rounded tablespoons of batter onto baking sheets.
Bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for 9-11 minutes, or until golden brown.
PAN COOKIE VARIATION: PREPARE dough as above. Spread into greased 15″x10″ jelly-roll pan. Bake in preheated 375ºF oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack.
Home cooked goodness.
January 7, 2011 at 11:32 pm | Posted in baking, cooking, Life, vegan | Leave a commentTags: pizza, turnip greens, vegan
I took a week off work and it’s allowed me to cook again. In the last three days I have made some pretty amazing meals: steamed veggies over a baked potato; Breakfast sandwiches; Raman with vegetarian beef balls; pizza (!!) with Daiya Cheese; and today’s lunch which was Southern Beans and Greens with cornbread. Not all of these meals even required a whole lot of planning or prep work and were just created out of things I happened to have in my pantry or fridge. The leftover steamed veggies were used as pizza toppings. I am addicted to eating REAL Asian Raman (not that Nissan crud with no taste, go to your Asian grocer and read the ingredients to make sure its vegetarian.) so I always have some in the pantry and I have some Vegetarian Beef Balls that I bought a while back and had no idea what to do with them. The Raman I ate yesterday was Beef Ball Flavored so I fried a few up and added them to the soup. The tofu in my breakfast sandwiches yesterday was also left over from when I made it last week for something else. And the greens I made today were Turnip Greens and the recipe called for Kale, but I used what I had on hand. It is not hard to eat a healthy balanced diet provided you always keep a stock of veggies and greens on hand.
Steamed veggies over a baked potato with nutritional yeast & olive oil.
Breakfast sandwich with baked tofu and tempeh bacon.
Vegetarian Beef Ball Raman Soup.
Homemade vegan cheese and veggie pizzas.
Southern Green Beans and Turnips with Cornbread.
And here are the recipes. The greens recipe is from the PCRM website and was todays recipe of the day on the 21 Day Vegan Kickstart that I am taking part of. I slightly modified the recipe by cooking it in a crockpot and substituting Turnip Greens for Kale. The cornbread came out of Skinny Bitch In The Kitch and is my favorite cornbread recipe as it halves easy, and is perfectly moist and a little sweet.
Southern Beans and Greens
Makes 4 servings
This traditional Southern combination creates a beautiful dish with a heavenly blend of flavors and a surprisingly meaty texture. Serve it with rice or another grain on the side. It also makes an excellent topping for warm corn bread, or a delicious filling for pita pockets, tortillas, or chapatis.
1 cup vegetable broth or water
3 cups drained cooked or canned beans (your choice of any kind)
1/2 teaspoon crushed garlic
4 cups chopped fresh kale, stems and center ribs removed, lightly packed
1 teaspoon olive oil
salt, to taste
black pepper, to taste
Tabasco sauce, to taste
Combine beans, broth or water, and garlic in a large saucepan. Place chopped kale on top of beans and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer until kale is tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in oil, salt, black pepper, and Tabasco sauce to taste.
Cornbread
- 1 Tablespoon oil
- 1 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal
- 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 1/2 cup silken tofu
- 2 Tablespoons honey
- Parmesan cheese to toss on top
Preheat oven to 425F. Oil a 13×9-inch baking pan. Set aside.
In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients. In a blender, combine the milk, tofu oil and honey, pureeing until smooth. Add the milk mixture to the cornmeal mixture, stirring just until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan.
Bake the cornbread until golden brown — about 20 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then remove the cornbread from the pan and return to rack to cool completely.
Serves 6-8
Something to be thankful for…
December 1, 2010 at 5:47 pm | Posted in baking, cooking, Life, vegan, vegetarian | Leave a commentTags: chutmey, cooking, cranberries, food, thanksgiving, Tofurky, vegan, vegetarian
A vegan Thanksgiving is something I am sure that the animals are thankful for. Our Thanksgiving was 99.999% vegan as I used Amy’s Semi-condensed Mushroom Soup for the green bean casserole which had a little bit of butter in it. I was afraid of using a non-condensed soup in my casserole as normally make this dish traditionally with Cream of Mushroom soup and make it my one non-vegan meal of the year. I subbed out silken tofu for the cream. My husband liked it, but I thought it was a little bit off. Hopefully It’ll come out better for Christmas.
Tofu Pumpkin Pie
Cranberry Chutney made by my dear husband.
Cranberry Chutney Rules! Perfect blend of sweet and spicy.
Note to self, put more marinade in next time. The taters stuck to the dish.
Green bean casserole.
Mashed squash, yum! Also my husbands idea.
Dinner, is served.
Thanksgiving dinner was great. A few things I feel the need to improve- such as the Tofurky. I have cooked many a Tofurky in the past and I have never had one dry out on me like it did this year. I guess I just need to use more basting sauce next time. I thought I used enough, but I guess I was wrong. I also forgot to buy carrots to put with the potatoes and that was a real bummer. I also need to find a solution to my green bean casserole crises. To me, it just isn’t a holiday dinner without it and I want it to be both vegan and flavorful. For all the flavor and texture I lost I almost wish I’d just made it the normal way with the canned cream of mushroom soup. I don’t want to make it gourmet or sophisticated or anything, I just want it tasty and vegan. Any suggestions folks?
Italian MoFo
November 16, 2010 at 8:46 pm | Posted in baking, cooking, vegan, vegan mofo | 2 CommentsTags: apple, apple crumble, italian, Kartika, vegan
What an exiting time of the month. We are halfway through Vegan MoFo and the first day of Bhisma-Panacaka starts tomorrow. If you are like me and have not done any austerities for Kartika yet than this is the time to do them.
For lunch on Sunday I made pasta with vegan Italian Sausage, red sauce, and garden fresh eggplant and cherry tomatoes. I sliced the sausage and browned it on my cast iron pan and put it in the sauce and pasta mixture. Then in the same pan I sauteed diced eggplant for about five minutes until lightly browned and then threw in some halved cherry tomatoes for a minute or two until they broke down a little. I mixed it all together and here are the results.
For dessert we had Apple Crumble. My husband made it and it was delish! The apples came from his parents apple tree.
Sweets and good eats.
August 25, 2010 at 5:48 pm | Posted in baking, cooking, Life, utah, vegan, vegetarian | 3 CommentsTags: Daiya, Tofurky
When I was living at home with my parents my mom would make the most delicious Toll House Cookies. I have been craving these bar cookies lately like crazy. So I did some research and found out that this traditional recipe does good with Egg Replacer. I wish that I had margarine at home because these cookies call for an entire cuppa buttah, which I happened to have on hand. So, I made these bar cookies and the world was happy. The butter was a bit much for my delicate stomach though so next time I’ll make them vegan. But you should really make these cookies. They’ll knock your socks off! Toll House Cookies are very much superior to regular old chocolate chip cookies. After you make these you’ll never bake standard chocolate chip cookies ever again.
Bar Cookie Bliss!
We have had an abundance of garden fresh zucchini lately and we enjoy eating stuffed baked potatoes with cheeze sauce so we thought it might be nice to combine all these goodies together. I have yet to meet a veggie that dosent taste good steamed and stuffed into a baked potato and covered with cheeze sauce.
Thank you Isa for making such an amazing Fronch Toast recipe in VWAV. Last time I ate French Toast I was still living with my parents so it must have been sometime in the 90′s. We paired the Fronch Toast with vegan Tofurky Sausages and oodles of maple syrup.
The Fronch Toast even smells authentic.
Who says vegan food is boring??
Oh, my hubby and I had a field trip to Salt Lake recently and I finally got ahold of some Daiya Cheese. YUM! All the claims are true- it melts and stretches and tastes awesome! I just finished eating a grilled baked cheese sandwich out of it and it was delicious! I am just so enchanted by this stuff. This is the first time I’ve eaten a grilled cheese sandwich and not gotten either sick from using real cheese or unsatisfied from using vegan cheese. Two thumbs up to Daiya! With that all said I’m going to get on with my day and end my blog posting here. Till next time! Haribol!
The morning after ekadasi.
August 7, 2010 at 4:43 pm | Posted in baking, cooking, ekadasi, vegan, vegetarian | 2 CommentsMy usual thought when I wake up the morning after ekadasi is GRAINS! And, am I breaking my fast off grains and beans at the correct time? This morning, yes I am. So you may ask- how can you eat gourmet and yummy and still observe ekadasi? Like this:
Quick-braised Broccoli with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Goat Cheese
This meal is strait out of Vegetarian Times Magazine. I made it pretty much to recipe, but I doubled the pine nuts and sun dried tomatoes. I served it over quinoa to keep it ekadasi, but man I must say this was a perfect meal.
Last ekadasi we ate steamed veggies over baked red potatoes. I drowned mine in nootch and olive oil.
Our standard ekadasi anytime meal.
And some ekadasi humor:
I just havent had the time to maintain this blog the way I used to when I worked part time, but I still take pictures of everything I cook.
Earlier this week I made Braised Zucchini Wheels with Sesame Mint Pesto. I have never made a pesto with bread crumbs in it before nor have I ever stuffed a zucchini. This is one of those rare meals that I actually followed the recipe. Well. I did triple the olive oil.
And some Ekadasi humor:
I am addicted to Isa’s Smokey Grilled Tempeh recipe. I served it up last week with Ricotta Cheese and Basil Stuffed Tomatoes.
That night I made some Coconut Chocolate Rounds for dessert from Averie’s Blog- Love Veggies and Yoga. The first time I made them I must have added too much agave nectar as they came out all gooey. So, the next time I made them I used organic cane sugar and doubled it, with success.
Speaking of chocolate, I also made an amazing batch of gooey vegan dark chocolate brownies!
Vegan gooey yumminess.
We seem to eat a lot of potatoes, broccoli, and tomatoes in our house. This is one of my fave recipes that includes those ingredients.
Veggie Stuffed Potatoes With Cajun Cheeze Sauce.
Pop the potatoes into the oven and whip up the veggie filling and Cajun sauce while the potatoes bake.
6 Servings
6 Russet potatoes
1 1/2 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp hing
1 rib celery, chopped
1/3 cup chopped yellow bell pepper
6 oz. broccoli
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 Tablespoons chopped black olives
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 Tablespoon tamari
3 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
¼ cup chopped fresh basil
dash hot pepper sauce, to taste
Sauce
2 tsp. canola oil
1/8 tsp. crushed red pepper
2 tsp hing
1 1/2 tablespoons unbleached flour
1 1/3 cups hot vegetable broth
1/3 cup almond milk
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon Bragg Liquid Aminos
1 teaspoon dried chives
Directions:
Preheat oven to 425°. Bake potatoes on middle rack 1 hour or until fork-tender.
Filling: Heat oil in a 10” frying pan, 1 minute. Add hing, bell pepper, and celery, 3 minutes. Add tomatoes and olives. Cook mixture 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add remaining ingredients lower heat to simmer and cover until ready to assemble.
Cajun Sauce: Heat oil, crushed pepper and hing in a saucepan, over medium heat for 2 minutes. Add flour and cook while stirring until beginning to brown, about 2 minutes. Stir in the broth add when thickening add the almond milk, yeast, Bragg Aminos, and chives. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring frequently.
Assembly: Cut an “X” into each potato when cool enough to handle, and press sides gently to open. Scoop out 1 tablespoon of pulp from each potato and add to stuffing mixture. Spoon stuffing into and over potatoes. Serve immediately.
Louisiana Stuffed Potatoes With Cajun ‘Cream’ Sauce
Nutrition analysis per serving: One stuffed potato with sauce
Protein 11g, Carbohydrate 64g, Fiber 8g, Fat 3g,
Cholesterol 0mg, Calcium 52mg, Sodium 390mg
Calories 320 from protein: 13%, from carbohydrate: 77%, from fat: 9%
This meal will dirty up every pot and pan in your house, but it’s totally worth it. I insist that you make this at least once, and tell me what you think.
I will keep cooking and photographing what I make and hopefully I will find the time to post soon! Till then, haribol!
Everybody lets get sconed!
February 5, 2010 at 10:15 pm | Posted in baking, vegan | 2 CommentsTags: baking, scones, vegan
After going (mostly) vegan I haven’t eaten a scone since, well I can’t even remember when so I decided to make the scones out of Vegan With A Vengeance which if you don’t already own you need to buy it. I bought my copy used off Amazon for only $9. So see, you really don’t have an excuse not to own this bitchin cookbook. Oddly enough here in Utah scones are deep fat fried so it looks like I will have to venture out into the world and try one of these unique to Utah delicacies. But anyways, here are the scones I made.
Here is the recipe that I used, based upon Isa’s recipe.
1 cup wheat flour
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tbs baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup veggie oil
1/2 cup vegan creamer (I used So Delicious Coconut Milk)
3/4 cup vegan milk (I used So Delicious Coconut Milk) and 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 cup cacao chips
Preheat oven to 400 degrees, grease a cookie sheet or line pan.
In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, sugar, chocolate chips, and salt. Add the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. The dough should be chunky and not sticky. Even if there is a light dusting of flour that is okay.
Drop by 1/4 cupfuls into the baking sheet and pat the tops to round them out. Bake 12-15 minutes and cool.
Brownies. Yum….
January 21, 2010 at 8:44 pm | Posted in baking, cooking | 2 CommentsTags: baking, brownies, vegan
I am a pretty picky eater of brownies and cookies. To please me they must be moist and tasty. I have had many disasters before in brownie baking land but these brownies were a success. I think I cut the recipe out of Natural Health Magazine, but I am unsure.
I had to fudge the recipe a bit as I was missing a few ingredients and dislike macadamia nuts. I planned on putting walnuts in instead but as I was baking to alleviate the boredom of being sick I simply flaked. Here is the original recipe in its entirety. Enjoy.
Mocha Brownies with Macadamia Nuts
1 1/2 cups granulated maple syrup (where am I supposed to buy this? I used natural sugar.)
3/4 cup applesauce
2 tsp ground flax seeds or hemp seeds
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup semolina flour
3/4 cup unsweetened baking cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbs instant coffee crystals
1/2 unsweetened soymilk (I used coconut milk)
1/2 cup nuts, chopped
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1. Heat oven to 350 F. Coat an 8 inch square baking pan lightly with oil or cooking spray.
2. In a med bowl, stir together applesauce, maple syrup granules, and 2 tbs water till smooth. Stir in flax or hempseeds and vanilla. In another bowl mix together flours, cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder. Fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients until just combined.
3. In a small cup dissolve coffee in 1/2 cup soy milk; fold into batter. Fold in nuts and chocolate chips.
4. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 40-50 minutes.
Eat and try not to burn your fingers as you devour the entire pan!!! YUM!
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