Sammiches

With a new fresh loaf of whole wheat bread I scored at our local grocer (I love baking bread, but don't do it all that often and an incidentally vegan loaf now and then at the store is always a treasured find) I recently forewent my typical stuffed pitas and wraps for some good ol' fashioned sandwich lunches. First up is my beloved Tofurkey slices but with a slice of vegan cheeze. I think it's the Veggie brand. Not sure. I wanted to try out the Rice slices but grabbed these instead. oops! Either way, they're not really worth mentioning. They're kinda cheezy but a little weird tasting and they don't melt, not even when forcibly pressed on the skillet. Paired, however, with the Tofurkey, some ugly tomato (i swear there's tomato in there!), some Lagere's Nutritional Yeast Spread (think mustard with a ton of nutritional yeast added....Mmmmmmm), and a bit of Vegannaise and this was super tasty and quick. And filled that Grilled Cheese Craving I was having. It's really about the salty, crispy bread for me.Speaking of Tofurkey...remember that seitan roast I made a while back to quell my rampant and consistent Tofurkey consumption? Yeah, well... half of it somehow managed to be sitting awaiting use in our freezer (this stuff is good but Tofurkey addiction is a crazy thing, folks! ;). I recently bought Horizon's cookbook after someone somewhere blogged about having eaten there and loving it lots. (I'm nothing if not a total sucker for a good review of a vegan cookbook) In it, I was intrigued by their seitan 'chicken' salad recipe. It had a few ingredients I didn't expect so I knew I had to test it out. I'm so glad i did! It's really delicious, and their method of boiling the crumbled seitan for three min in a flavorful broth was perfect for preparing it to soak up all the yummy flavors of the dressing. I am seriously loving this stuff and it really didn't need much more accompaniment than a thick slice of ugly tomato on that whole wheat bread.
On the side tho....Cashe-so (Cashew Queso) was a brilliant idea I had with some corn chips.. Inspired by Jess of Get Sconed and her cashew cheeze (hers is raw), I whipped up Vegan Vittles cooked variety and had some leftover. Mixed with the last of my homemade salsa made it an even better dipping delight!

I do think, however, that the veggie bouillion used in this particular recipe is too overpowering and am excited to try it again with water or maybe miso, not sure yet....but it's good!

Breakfast of Champions

Or of me, anyway ;)I know I said something about tinkering with and supplying a real recipe for these quinoa patties, but I do so love feeding a craving, especially when said craving comes together without a recipe at all. This is just something I like to throw together, yearn for it, really. And i never measure a thing. I just add whatever till the desired tacky patty making consistency and viola! Best breakfast ever.

Basically, this is half a cup of uncooked quinoa, cooked. then I just thaw all the frozen silken firm tofu i had in the freezer (was about just over a box, this time). I mash up the tofu and add a couple tablespoons of shoyu, about a healthy teaspoon each of garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, oregano, and a good pinch of celery seed, a touch of sea salt, some black pepper, and then maybe a tsp of olive oil.

I mix that up with a fork and add nutritional yeast til it gets sticky, add the cooked quinoa, about a tablespoon or two of fresh chopped parsley, and form the patties. This made about nine. I place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and toss 'em in a 350 oven, spraying the top lightly with olive oil and cook for 15 min, flip, spray and cook for another fifteen minutes.

this morning I sauteed some fresh spinach with olive oil, sea salt, pepper and a dash of nutmeg to make a bed for my patties then slivered a little fresh red bell pepper and drizzled on a bit of my homemade agave mustard sauce (equal parts of agave, Dijon mustard, and Vegannaise). so hearty and delicious, wheat free, too! And FULL of protein. super yum!

Yum, Yum, and YUM!

One family birthday/anniversary/welcome home party and three amazing new vegan goodies, all in one afternoon! I'd been absolutely dying to try Celine's cheezy crackers and knew that making them along with some sort of fresh dip would be a great compliment to our party spread (the fam always requests new vegan food to try at our gatherings). I was soooo right, these are incredible! they truly do have that cheezy zing we all know and love from the non-vegan goldfish crackers. I only had butterfly cookie cutters but the recipe made about fifty. I already can't wait to make these again. I love how becoming vegan spurs me to make things I'd never have made before. Crackers, all by myself? Who knew how easy and tasty they could be?! Now I do! They even went faster than the rice crackers or wheat thins I didn't make but also supplied.

The freshest, most appetizing sounding dip I could find was Vegan Vittles' Green Bean Pate. Don't let the beigeness of this picture fool you. Oh man, if you haven't had this before, you must try it! I doubled the recipe and am so glad i did. Fresh green beans, browned onions, toasted walnuts, a bit of silken tofu, salt, pepper, and nutmeg and wow 's all I can say. The combo was a huge hit. No one could keep themselves from diggin in til it was aaaaall gone.

But first, here's a lil butterfly takin a dip in the dip. ;) Last, but certainly not least was VWaV's Udon Noodles with Peanut Sauce. I skipped the seitan and used rice noodles (the Cap'n's sister has a severe wheat allergy so I always try to accommodate the both of us with great food) and added some carrots to the mix. This was cool, refreshing, so fresh and reeeeeally tasty. Everyone loved it. I only wish I'd doubled the peanut sauce because it was just so amazing and just barely enough for such a huge salad (that beautiful platter is more than a foot in diameter!)

Also to the celebratory table I offered up some grill roasted cauliflower (simply with some olive oil, tons of garlic, sea salt, and cracked black pepper) and the always wonderful seitan ribz, this time with Annie's Naturals BBQ Sauce. For some reason these were drier than usual so I opted not to toss them on the grill and they were just warm, not hot, but still tasty.

While everyone else dug into the Cap'n's family's traditional chocolate cake his sister and I enjoyed some wheat-free vegan chocolate chip cookies. Nope, no picture of those. Why? Well, because we deVOURED them, that's why! ;) but you can find that recipe here.

Strawberry Banana Bread......or Not

'Cause sometimes? Ya have to share your failures as well as your successes. ;)

If necessity is the mother of invention, then surely the produce in your kitchen just this side of spoiling is her darling daughter.

Lucky, too...'cause she inspired this, Strawberry Banana Bread. (at this point, i was still banking on this idea working out beautifully!) I knew I'd be making some banana bread of some bananas when I noticed out 'nana hanger was about to drop their 3 brown butts to the counter. When I remembered the container of organic strawberries that were hiding in the crisper I thought, 'Hmmmmm, strawberry banana is such a yummy combo, why've I never tried this before?'.

Looks like mamma had a hand in this lil kitchen experiment as well...or maybe that was her sneaky son, Lack of Forethought? I knew when I put the batter into my loaf pan that it was a bit full. I don't remember that being a problem in the past, didn't expect this to rise much...but indeed it did, oozing strawberry banana goodness all over the oven and leaving the loaf not so pretty. Actually, all said and done, I had all kindsa problems with this creation. I blame Lack of Forethought's sidekick, Love For Junkfood who whispered in my ear to go for it, use all the sugar, most of the vegan margarine and hell, sub some vanilla soy creamer for regular soy milk.

The loaf, after an hour and ten, was not ready. So ten more minutes...then another, then five more, and the corners were threatening to go black. Out it came to cool and I'll be darned if that thing wasn't just too heavy to ever really cook thru and set up. Actually, taking it out of the loaf pan, the whole thing collapsed on itself. The flavor's good, but it's like a bit overdone banana bread outside with a banana strawberry bread pudding inside.Interesting, not awful, not really worthy of serving to anyone honestly, and certainly not what I was going for. So no recipes today, but I'm not giving up yet! I see a healthier version in the form of Yummy Banana Muffins with Strawberry Swirl in the very near future. ;)

And another kitchen dud was Bryanna's puffy omelet. I stumbled upon it by accident in cruising the web for other people's versions of tofu omelets. Knowing Bryanna almost always hits it out of the park, I raced to the kitchen to whip this one up. It's easy, sounds versatile, and cooks up quickly...just what i was looking for.

When I first whipped it up I was a little put off by the flour in the recipe. I didn't love the floury taste or smell I was getting from it but figured that would all cook off?
Then, in my 500 degree oven on my dark baking pans (cake pans really, as all my baking sheets are not dark as the recipe suggests need be used) I took them out to flip only to find that they were horribly stuck to the pans. I liberally had oiled them so this was not a foreseen problem.

But flip them I did and cooked them up anyway, having to scrape them a second time off the pans to serve. I'd added chopped green onion to mine and salvaged their crumbly mess by serving them up to myself with a side of roasted potatoes and fresh avocado then topping with my homemade salsa. Because really? that stuff makes EVERYTHING taste good. ;)I'd still jump to try Bryanna's other recipes but this one just didn't work for me. I think I prefer my tofu omelets sans flour and requiring just longer cooking time. Live, (eat!), and learn!

Same Ol' Same Old

I haven't done a lot of blogging lately because I haven't really tried anything new for a while. Lots of breakfasts like this
Kamut flakes, fresh peaches, fresh blueberries, and soy milk is a definite quick favorite of mine. I just love that fruit combination. And kamut flakes are my favorite cereal, easily.

For the mornings that I want some 'real food' I'd been craving the Rev. Spanish Omelet from VWaV. I halve the recipe and make it thinner with just two potatoes, half an onion and one box of silken firm tofu. The saffron in this one is just amazing...and, while i looooove the recommended roasted red pepper almond sauce on everything else, I much prefer to top my omelet with fresh cracked black pepper and half a fresh avocado. A side of millet toast and some fresh fruit and I'm rerrin' to go! (granted, not eating the ENTIRE omelet in one sitting takes all the willpower this vegan can muster. It's that damn good!

But you've seen this all before from the likes of me and, really, how many times can I wow you with a yummy fresh green salad?and you just know I'll top it with some homemade ginger dressing, no surprise there! ;) that's pretty much what I've had for lunch almost daily with a Tofurkey pita, and i never ever get tired of it.
The Cap'n and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary! this month (this is also the month of my one year anniversary of being totally vegan! yay for august, all good things!) but we celebrated pretty low-key. a day at the beach, just us, was beautiful and serene. we had a lot of fun. So much fun that the camera never even made it out of the bag. typical! and we came home to a simple meal (so simple i cannot ever remember what it is we ate!) and our favorite decadent easy dessert, semi-sweet chocolate dipped strawberries.Mmmmmmmmm.

So that's what I've been putting off sharing...more of the same, really. But fear not. A couple of duds, a couple of grand successes and a fantastic breakfast are all on their way!

Can't wait to drop by the rest of your blogs again soon. I just know I'll be incredibly inspired to shake things up in the kitchen after I do!