Best Mac UnCheeze EVA!

Seriously, Jess of Get Sconed? Total goddess. She took the New Farm Cookbook's fat laden version and healthied it up a bit and shared it on her blog a while back. I've been wanting to try it but always make the version I've come to know and love from the Nutritional Yeast Cookbook.

But man oh man, no more! Nope, I am absolutely HOOKED on her amazing interpretation. For the green in my mac Uncheeze i opted for organic frozen peas (almost always opt for peas, honestly) and it was perfection.Gooey, cheezy, and satisfying. Jess is even more of a goddess than at first i realized as she had the forethought to deliver a halved recipe on her blog which meant i only devoured half the carby goodness i would have had she given me the tools to make more right off the bat. (i ate half of the four servings i made. mm hmmm, i sure did)

I used some sprouted wheat and flax seed spirals for my pasta and the optional fresh garlic, onion powder, paprika, and panko breadcrumbs on the top (had to broil it at the end for a couple mins to get those babies to brown after a spritz of olive oil was applied). I also used a heaping spoonful of this stuff (which, i'm sad to say, i don't believe veganessentials.com is carrying anymore, gasp!) in my cheezy mix because it is absolutely my favorite condiment (aside from salsa). It's mustard with a nutritional yeast punch...something i personally can never get enough of.

If you haven't tried this one yet, get thee to Jess's blog and do so immediately! to round out my meal i had a big salad of butter lettuce, tons of fresh 'shrooms, tomato, sprouts and surprise of all surprises, ginger dressing.this morning's breakfast? the rest of the mac with a bowl of fresh mango, strawberries, and organic blackberries that were absolutely divine.

Fun With Your Food

One of my favorite recipes is TEV's stuffed portabello's. I've made them enough times now that I don't use the recipe but wing it, tossing in a bowl artichoke hearts, spinach, pesto, Vegannaise, nutritional yeast, bread crumbs, sea salt, and pepper all to taste (i never did use tofu in this one as it calls for) then toss it all in portabello caps and bake to perfection. Not having much in the way of basil or a pesto recipe I felt like adhering to, I whipped up a quick one using the following and my trusty immersion blender:

Easy Pesto
2 handfuls pine nuts
1 handful hemp seeds (toasted all of those in a warm skillet)
about 10 leaves basil
1/3 c. fresh parsley
2 T. nutritional yeast
splash of lemon juice
couple T water
2 pinches sea salt
black pepper to taste
olive oil to desired consistencey (i just added it until it was creamy and not too dry)

I put a few healthy spoonfuls in my 'shroom filling and mixed it all up, then browned some soy curls in olive oil before adding a bit more pesto to those and sauteeing til crispy. served that alongside my 'shroom over some leftover brown sushi rice. yum! right?

right.
but the next day, i had a problem. while soooo very tasty, the 'shrooms never seem to hold up thru a second serving the next day. they're limp and less than plump and juicy as they begin the day you first make them. so of course i did what any good vegan would do. I made patties! I chopped the 'shroom bottoms and leftover pesto soy curls and added them and the filling to my food processor and pulsed til desired conistency. I then added more of that brown sushi rice that was lingering in the 'fridge and stirred it all up til it was a sticky, gooey mess that held together nicely when formed into patties. into the hot skillet they went with a touch of olive oil til browned to perfection.

I served as you see them with a bit more pesto and some leftover roasted red pepper almond sauce. these patties are full of so much good stuff that I ate them and nothing else for a couple meals while running around for a day or two.

they were perfect eats as i busily made the following to stock the 'fridge of friends who just welcomed their first baby boy into the world:

Susan's Ribz
VT's meatless loaf for sandwiches
huge green salad with Ginger Dressing for days
rice noodles and zucchini rawsta with roasted red pepper almond sauce (mmmmm)
chickpea salad with hummus and pitas and brown rice cakes to enjoy it on
Welcome to the world, Keiran Forest!

oh, and the remaining agave cupcakes from my frosting disaster ended up getting frosted after all...they may look like they're piled high with poo, but i assure you that a ton of VCTOTW's chocolate buttercream frosting (with newly purchased Florida Crystals powdered sugar) was all they needed to transform them from light, fluffy goodness to totally decadent birthday yumminess for a friend). having no fancy tools i employed the 'fill plastic baggie with frosting, cut corner and pipe' method for that dog poo finish. ;) the pic is blurry but i was in a hurry to race out of town to deliver them and do some bday celebrating with our friend. they were devoured....imagine that!

Tofu Rancheros, Tomato Creme Sauce, 'n Naked Cupcakes

Tofu Rancheros, or rancheros del queso de soja, according to the handy Bable Fish online translator. This was just some leftover tofu scramble (tofu and onion browned, splash of tamari, some nutritional yeast, turmeric, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper) placed a top corn tostadas with refried beans, Tofutti sour cream, tomatoes, avocado and salsa. Man, what a yummy way to start the day!

In need of a quick dinner last night, here's Vegan YumYum's Fresh Tomato Cream Sauce minus the Fresh. I just used about a can and a half of no salt added tomatoes and then followed her recipe in a sauce pan, adding then mixing to some whole wheat angel hair pasta and some steamed broccoli. What a wonderful way to make a quick pasta sauce, we love it.

And finally, a craving gone so very wrong that turned out so very right. I'd been wanting cupcakes like nobody's business (that'll teach me to check out the food porn at the ppk forums too often!) and all i could think about was VCTOTW's agave cupcakes (i'd yet to try them but so love agave i knew it would happen sooner than later) with some rich, chocolatey buttercreme icing.

While the cuppers were in the oven, I whipped up the icing, but realized it wasn't coming together all that well. I blamed the dark chocolate cocoa i was using, scrapped it, and tried with some regular cocoa powder....only to find that it required a heckuva lot more soy milk than usual and when i tasted it? blech! it was powdery and almost salty, a strange aftertaste prevailed. in testing my powdered sugar i found that it tasted more like flour. seems i mixed cake flour with the powdered sugar when refilling the canister or some such thing because powdered sugar this was not.

with no other powdered sugar or chocolate in the house i sat back and enjoyed one sans icing and i gotta say, these little gems are light, fluffy, and perfectly sweet all on their own. (but that super dark chocolate bar my mom just sent me with my belated birthday box will surely make a fine ganache for those that remain....mmmmm, mmmm! stay tuned for that!)

Have a safe and happy weekend, everyone!

Greenless Salad

If you're anything like me, when faced with a Ginger Dressing or any other variety, you'll choose ginger every time. As I'm using up that which I made the other day but currently have nothing but frozen greens in the house, this awesome salad was inspired. I cooked up some bean thread (glass) noodles and ran them under cold water then drained well. Those were topped with organic alfalfa sprouts, chopped cucumber and tomato, carrot ribbons, chickpeas, and sliced avocado. A new favorite is born!

Mini Quiches 'n Vegan Tapioca

I am constantly struggling with getting the best pics of my food to share here. We have a pretty darn decent camera (Nikon Coolpix 5400). Actually, it's almost too decent for the likes of me. I'm entirely too impatient to deal with such a photographer's camera. I need a more point and shoot variety as I rarely use all the options this baby has. That said, I know that natural lighting produces the very best photos, but without a tripod, this vegan's shaky hands rarely capture a great still shot. I love the lighting here, but it's just not as clear as I know this cam is capable of. So, as usual, the flash is used and that less than cheerful light is produced. it makes everything seem a big dark to me, but the clarity is often not to be beat. Sure I can tinker it with it in an editing program, but have I mentioned my lack of patience yet? ;)These were little tofu quiches with a big head of chopped broccoli and onion with oregano, basil, and thyme, served with VWaV's Roasted Red Pepper Almond Sauce. What a great flavor combination. These were accompanying some leftover Mango Muffins in a brunch served to myself and our weekend guest (miss you already!). Later that night, I had a craving for pudding...so I went about making a vegan tapioca. I wasn't sure if it would work sans eggs, I haven't had tapioca in ages..but I loooove how simple and easy and totally thick and yummy this turned out. Again, check the lighting....our home, at night, relies on those energy saving bulbs that seem to cast a orange/honey colored hue reflecting on the warm wood floors and accents that abound.As opposed to the dull but clear flash pic version. Such a difference! This little exercise alone is showing me that I reeeeally need to tinker with our camera a bit and adjust settings to see what I can come up with....but everything I eat is always room temperature as it is! ;) And i really must invest in a tripod!For the tapioca I just mixed 3 cups vanilla soy milk with about 2/3 cup plus 1 Tablespoon of granulated tapioca (it's basically all that was left in the little box I'd bought for something else). I heated it to boiling, set it to low for a couple of minutes, then stirred in about 1/4 cup agave nectar and 1 tsp. vanilla extract. I let it cool for about 15 min off heat before serving. It was perfect for me as it wasn't overly sweet and just enough vanilla flavor. For a sweeter version, I'd probably use Maple Syrup instead of the Agave and if you don't like your tapioca so thick, I'd use a little less of it. But I loved it just like this.