Tuesday, March 27, 2007

A True Southern Meal


The other night, while eating leftover lasagna, my boyfriend told me "I've been looking forward to this meatloaf all night." "Umm...you're eating lasagna." "I know, but I have really been wanting meatloaf, so that's what I'm pretending it is." Cue the vegan meatloaf. I used this recipe (which is actually the first recipe that comes up if you do a google search for "vegan meatloaf"). The taste was pretty good, but it didn't firm up enough, even after sitting for 20 minutes. I would probably search for a different recipe in the future.

The mashed potatoes are this recipe, subbing plain soy milk and Earth Balance Whipped (we hardly ever buy the regular Earth Balance, as we like the texture of the Whipped one, or even of Soy Garden, better...plus, EB Whipped is organic and regular EB is not). The gravy is just the Pacific Foods brand mushroom gravy. I bought the small box of it after Thanksgiving when it was on sale, but it's just been sitting in the fridge ever since. I don't often have a need for brown gravy, so I'm not entirely sure why I bought it.

The green beans are actually from my boyfriend's parents' garden. His momma cans the beans each year. They're so good!

I made a really stupid mistake with the biscuits, hence their lack of fluffiness. My biscuit recipe calls for self-rising flour, and I always sub regular flour with added baking powder and salt. This time, it wasn't until I'd mixed the soy milk into the flour and shortening mixture that I realized I'd forgotten said baking powder and salt. I kneaded it into the dough, but it just wasn't the same. Woopsie.


These are Fig Not-Ins from Vegan with a Vengeance. Before cooking the filling on the stove, I ran it through the food processor. I didn't have quite enough figs, and I wanted them to have a raspberry flavor, too, so I added some raspberry jam to the mixture. It worked nicely! The cookie part is a little harder that I recall Fig Newtons being, but these are still very good. They sure aren't the easiest cookies to put together, though.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

We really love the meatloaf from La Dolce Vegan, it comes out wonderfully every time.

I'm pretty hit and miss with biscuits, I make my husband admire them before eating whenever I get it right! :o)

KleoPatra said...

Funny little vignette there from yer beau there... Haven't tried the meatloaf recipe but it sure looks good from the photo there. Also lovin' the Pacific Foods 'shroom gravy topped mashed po's... Nice!

Yer boyfriend's parents have a garden... and they can can the beans! YUM. How cool!!

Your Fig Not-Ins look great! I am lovin' the fact that you added the raspberry jam in there. Lookin' good. I'm sure worth the effor, too.

Thanks for the YouTube link you left on my blog. I'm gonna check it out later!!

Happy (early) Passover... here's to FREEDOM!!

Mikaela said...

"EB Whipped is organic and regular EB is not." Yeah, why is that? :)

Everything looks great - esp. the cookies!

Kate said...

All your food looks so good. Vegan meatloaf- I guess I should stop underestimating the endless possibilities of vegan cooking.

urban vegan said...

I've been meaning to make the Not-Ins--they look like stick-to-your-ribs cookies.