I'm a slacker about posting, but not cooking.

While the veggie burger recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance is still our favorite, I just had to try the black bean burger recipe from Veganomicon. These turned out very well, and the flavor of the burger wasn't overpowered by the bun and condiments and whatnot, which is always a plus. These were also much less time-intensive than the VWAV recipe, so when I want some veggie burgers but don't have much time to devote to making them, I'll definitely turn to this recipe again.

And yes, those are baked beans that you see on the plate along with the bean burgers. I was having a rather forgetful day. See, I made these burgers and even went so far as to make the buns from scratch. In all the time that I was opening and closing the fridge that day, I never once noticed the leftovers from the evening before sitting on the top shelf of the fridge just waiting to be eaten. I'm the one that made dinner the night before, so how I could so easily forget about having done so, I don't know. It wasn't until I went to put away the leftover burgers after dinner that I noticed the other leftovers. Woops. And the baked beans were because I was going to serve broccoli with dinner, but forgot to cook it until it was too late.

While we were in Portland, I got a copy of Yellow Rose Recipes. This crispy beer-battered seitan was the first recipe I tried from it. It was messy to make, but very good. I actually liked it better the next day, but I think that was because I like seitan better after it has been in the fridge overnight. I made the seitan for this recipe (also from YRR) the earlier in the day, so it didn't sit in the fridge for all that long. I look forward to trying more recipes from YRR. Right now I'm eyeing the mustard-crusted seitan, since I still have more seitan to use.

The new issue of VegNews contains a macaroni and cashew cheese recipe. I don't usually get VegNews (I'm not really big on magazines), but I saw some pictures of the recipe in the Food Porn section on the PPK and really wanted to try it. I found a variation of the recipe here. I'm so glad I tried it. This might be my new favorite vegan mac and cheese recipe. And, for those of you that don't care for nutritional yeast....don't worry, this recipe doesn't call for any!

These are the jelly donut cupcakes from Veganomicon. Sorry, no inside pictures. These are so neat. You put a spoonful of jelly on top of the batter and it sinks down into the middle during baking. Apparently a lot of other people have trouble with this (the jelly either doesn't sink at all, or it sinks down to the bottom), but they worked just fine for me! I also like that they don't have any frosted. Granted, I like frosting, but it can be a lot of work, so it's nice to have cupcakes that are delicious and pretty without it.

White Bean Burgers with Sautéed Mushrooms and Three Spice Potatoes

I got it into my head earlier in the week that I wanted to make some sort of white (cannellini) bean burger. I wasn't very successful at finding a recipe, so I decided to just make something up as I went along. Unfortunately I don't have a recipe to share with ya'll, as I didn't write down any measurements as I went, but this included one 15 oz. can of drained cannellini beans, two sprigs worth of fresh rosemary, dried thyme, salt and pepper, all purpose flour, ground seitan, and breadcrumbs. If you can't tell by the last three ingredients, my mashed up beans were kind of wet and I was having a hard time getting a mixture that was firm enough with just the flour. After adding somewhere around 1/2 cup of flour, I was worried that they were going to have too much of a flour-y taste, so I switched to the seitan and just a bit of breadcrumbs. I cooked these in a lightly-oiled cast iron skillet over medium heat.

The three spice potatoes are a test recipe for lolo at VeganYumYum. Who doesn't love roasted potatoes? Okay, so I know a number of people who don't like potatoes at all, but I don't understand those people. The spice combination on these was probably an odd match for the Tuscan-inspired white bean burgers, but I wanted to test the potato recipe and I also really wanted to make the white bean burgers. What's a girl to do?

Seitan Black Bean Burgers

This black bean burger is another test recipe for lolo at VeganYumYum. The burger should have corn in it, too, but I goofed and just assumed that I had some in the freezer. In the future I should probably verify that I have the ingredients on-hand before I start making a recipe. Even without the corn, though, these were very good burgers. They were a little more like a typical burger than the usual veggie burger recipe I use (from Vegan with a Vengeance). While my boyfriend and I agree that we still prefer the VWAV recipe, we will definitely make this one again as well. It was so fast to make (minus the time I spent making the seitan), and the burgers hold together well, making them perfect for traveling. I served the burgers with leftover hashbrowns/home fries, if you're wondering what else is on the plate.

100th Post! And lolo is McAwesome.

This is another test recipe for lolo at veganyumyum (check out her latest post about her upcoming cookbook!). These are seitan nuggets, also known as almond fried seitan (and yes, to make up for the fried portion of dinner, we had two vegetables). These were so good! I served them with a mustard sauce I like to make, which is equal parts vegan mayonnaise and dijon mustard mixed with a bit of agave nectar and hot sauce. lolo thinks they make a pretty good McNugget substitute and I agree, although you might want to take that with a grain of salt, since I haven't had McDonald's in the past decade. I used the Vegan with a Vengeance seitan recipe for these.

Since we sadly do not own a grill, we roasted the corn in the oven. We found directions online which said to remove the silk, then wrap it in foil and roast at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 8-10 minutes. That wasn't nearly long enough! It took more like 30 minutes, and probably could have used a few more minutes. It was very good, though. I love fresh corn. I can't wait to try making it on a grill, but we won't be getting one until we move into a house.

Seitan Edamame Curry

Awhile back, someone on the ppk posted a Chickenish Baked Seitan recipe. I finally got around to trying it last week, but honestly I wasn't too impressed. I didn't love the texture. Maybe I'm just used to the seitan that is simmered on the stovetop, though. Also, this was really hard to flip over halfway through. It's rather large and it's friggin' hot after having been in the oven for an hour, sitting in boiling broth. I made it, though, and I didn't want to waste it. The first night with it we had seitan steaks covered in leftover Pomegranate BBQ sauce. The next night I made this curry. It was really a "use up the leftovers" kind of meal. The couscous was already in the refrigerator. For veggies, I used mushrooms, onion, and edamame. I thought edamame sounded kind of strange in a curry, but I was running low on vegetables. It was actually really good! We need to eat edamame more often. The sauce is a mixture light coconut milk, vegetable broth, and a teaspoon of red curry paste, thickened up with a bit of cornstarch.

Chana Masala with Seitan and Muffins That Don't Really Taste Like Donuts

We are going to Nashville for the weekend and I like to bring some food with me, just in case. My boyfriend's momma is good about making food I can eat, but I like to bring stuff with me, too, as I really don't like being a bother. I had some seitan to use up, and remembered that I had a box of chana masala spice mixture hanging out in the pantry. Hence this Chana masala with seitan thing-a-ma-jig that I came up with.

Probably not very authentic Chana Masala with Seitan

2 tsp Earth Balance Whipped (could use regular EB or olive oil)
1 small onion, diced
2 cups seitan, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 15 oz. can of chickpeas
1 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes
3 tsp chana masala spice mix (mine was by a brand called Roni...I found it at the health food store)
1 tsp chili powder

1. Melt Earth Balance Whipped in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add diced onions and cook until translucent.
2. Add chopped seitan and cook, stirring occasionally, until it begins to brown. Add minced garlic and cook until fragrant (only takes 30 seconds or so).
3. Stir in the chana masla spice mix and chili powder. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.
4. Serve over rice.

This rather odd-looking picture is a Muffin That Taste Like Donuts from Vegan Vittles. These aren't bad, but by no means do I think that they taste like donuts. I really don't get the comparison. With the small amount of sugar in the recipe (2 TB sugar and 1 TB of maple syrup per 6 muffins), I don't see how they could possibly wind up tasting like donuts. I will finish these, but I'm not sure I'd make the recipe again. I'm a blueberry muffin kind of girl.

Not Your Mama's Meatloaf

Yes, I know that's not how I normally spell "momma," but that's how Joanne Stepaniak spells it in Vegan Vittles. This is the first recipe I have tried from that cookbook, which I just checked out of the library (it's the older version). I will definitely be trying more recipes, as this one was a hit. It turned out SO much better than the last time I made a meatloaf. This one actually held together when I took it out of the pan! The main ingredient in this recipe is ground seitan. I already had some seitan on-hand that I made a few days ago (the Vegan With a Vengeance recipe), so I used that rather than trying out the recommended recipe from Vegan Vittles. The green beans are, once again, from my boyfriend's parents' garden. We stock up when we go visit them (which we'll be doing this weekend). They are so much better than the canned stuff from the grocery store. Growing up I never thought I liked green beans. It turns out that I just don't care for the French Style green beans from a can (or frozen).

BBQ Ribz

We went to Nashville last weekend and I got a new bottle of barbeque sauce from Wild Oats. When I saw Susanv's post on barbecued seitan ribz, I knew just what to do with the sauce. These were good. I've tried the Gardenburger Riblets before and didn't really care for them, but I liked these and I'm looking forward to the leftovers. I followed the baking instructions on the recipe that Susanv linked to, since I don't have a grill (or a cast iron grill pan....yet). I served the ribz with mrsbadmouth's cornbread test recipe (I only made half the recipe, since I wanted to try making it in my cast iron skillet and my skillet is small) and some green beans from my boyfriend's parents' garden.

Check out my new sponges! I found them at Big Lots the other day. They were the same price as the regular ones, so of course I had to get these.

lolo's Crispy Sweet and Sour Seitan

lolo over at the ppk posted about this Crispy Sweet and Sour Seitan. She posted the recipe on her blog, VeganYumYum, and I had all of the ingredients, so I just had to try it. In case you can't tell, I made a batch of seitan recently and I've been trying to use it up. I couldn't decide which of these pictures I preferred, so I posted both.
This was pretty good. I definitely liked the method for making seitan crispy and will try it again with other sauces as well. The sweet and sour sauce was a little vinegary for me, but I think that adding some apricot preserves to it next time will fix that. I also forgot to add the salt, so I'm sure that didn't help.

Red Curry Seitan and Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

This red curry seitan was such a simple "recipe" (I made it up on the fly). I cut up seitan into bite-size pieces and browned it over medium heat. I added chopped onions and a red bell pepper and cooked them until they were softened. I meant to add a can of straw mushrooms, but I managed to forget it despite the fact that I had it sitting out on the counter. I then whisked approx. 2 teaspoons of Thai Kitchen red curry paste (would cut that back a little next time) into one can of coconut milk. I added this mixture, along with some chopped fresh basil, to the pan of seitan and veggies and let cook until it was heated throughout. Except for the time it took to make to cook the brown rice, this was the fastest dinner I've made in awhile. We had enough for leftovers the next night, which was good because we got home from our day-trip to Atlanta pretty late.

My boyfriend took me to Atlanta this weekend as a belated Valentine's Day present (I was sick on Valentine's Day, so he couldn't surprise me then like he'd wanted to). We ate lunch at Soul Vegetarian, then went to Ikea, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods. At Ikea I got a large whisk (my other one was getting rusty in the handle, plus this new one is silicone-coated so that it won't scratch my pots), a mortar and pestle, a wok ($7!!!), and an apron (also $7!!!). We spent entirely too much money on food, but it was a fun trip. I long to have a Trader Joe's here.


Cookies and Cream Cupcakes, from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, of course. So cute! Cutting a Newman-O in half is not as easy as you'd think.

Seitan Nuggets

Last week I bought these red potatoes at the produce market and knew that I wanted to roast them. It took me a little while to figure out what I wanted to serve with them, but I finally settled on these seitan nuggets (and green beans). I used the seitan recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, then cut the seitan into nugget-sizes and coated them in some seasoned flour. I let that dry for a few minutes, then dipped them in plain soymilk and then coated them in seasoned bread crumbs. We use the Edwards and Sons brand of bread crumbs. They are expensive, but last for quite awhile. It's so hard to find bread crumbs that aren't full of funk. Even the panko bread crumbs I found at the Asian market contained hydrogenated oil. No thanks! Anyhoo, I baked these nuggets at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, then flipped them over and baked for 10 minutes more. They turned out pretty good. I'm sure they would have gotten more of a crispy coating had I fried them, but I try to keep frying to a once-in-a-blue-moon sort of thing.

Lots O' Food

Valentine's Day dessert. Brownies from theppk.com and caramel sauce from the Vegan Chef (the recipe is on there as Vegan Caramel Sauce...the site doesn't let me directly link to the recipe). I've made the caramel sauce before and really like it. This time I used dark brown sugar by Wholesome Sweeteners. I think I liked it a little better with a lighter brown sugar, but it was still good. The brownie recipe was a little too cakey for me, but I am generally a fan of fudgy, non-cakey brownies, so that doesn't mean anything was wrong with the brownies. And I could ignore the cakey-ness with the sauce on top!


Jerk Seitan, from Vegan With a Vengeance. Not a pretty picture, but a tasty dish. Green peppers + onions = mmmmm. I made the seitan from scratch. I used the other half of the batch for spring rolls on Valentine's Day. Why I didn't take pictures of said spring rolls, I don't know.


Stuffed Shells. We love these and I've made them several times, but just as I was about to eat this last night, it occurred to me that I've never taken a picture. I don't follow an exact recipe. It's loosely based on the Baked Stuffed Shells recipe from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook (well, I follow the baking instructions, at least). We like soy cheese melted on top, but this is only baked at 350 degrees. It's hard to get soy cheese to melt at that low of a temperature. I heat some plain soymilk on the stovetop, whisk in the grated soy cheese and whisk until it is melted (I also added in a bit of nutritional yeast, since the soy milk tones down the soy cheesiness a bit). Once the soy cheese is melted, I add a couple of tablespoons of flour and whisk until the mixture thickens. I then pour the mixture over the stuffed shells. You can see some of the cheesy sauce on the left side of the picture.

I've been slacking on posting

Chocolate Mint Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Funny story....I bought the book right after it came out, only I'm trying really hard to control my spending, so I kind of neglected to tell my boyfriend about it. I figured he would figure it out eventually, though, especially when I suddenly started making lots of cupcakes. Apparently guys do not think the way I do, though. Instead of analyzing where the cupcakes came from, he just thought "mmmm cupcakes." So, one day he went to the front page of theppk.com and noticed that the cupcake book was out. He asked me if I was going to get it. I am a horrible liar and don't like doing it anyway, so I fessed up that I'd had it for a couple of weeks already. Turns out he didn't care that I spent the money and, in return for not getting upset with me for hiding the book, he got to pick out the next cupcakes (but the Tiramisu ones got vetoed by me because I don't do coffee).
The mint icing on these just wouldn't stiffen up for me, and there was a bit of an incident with my makeshift pastry bag, but I think everything turned out just fine. I kind of like the mint icing being smooth like it is because it reminds me of a mint filling from a peppermint patty.

Asian-marinated baked tofu (Vegan with a Vengeance) with sauteed green beans and onions over yellow rice. I just love yellow rice. Even though it's really just turmeric added to regular rice, I think it is tastier and much more visually appealing. Hey, I'm easy to please.

Baked BBQ seitan with mushrooms, black beans, and (I think) onions over rice.

Homemade bread. It's shiny because I brushed it with oil after coming out of the oven. Although I have a bread machine, I did this one all by hand. Non-bread machine bread is so much easier to slice, plus there is no hole in the bottom from the paddle. I think I'm going to start using my bread machine for the kneading and rising, but then shape the dough and put it in a loaf pan. It might take some practice to get that right, though, as I'll have to figure out what temperature to bake it at.

Seitan Fajitas

Yesterday I made homemade seitan, and then used some of it to make fajitas (seitan, onions, mushrooms, and green pepper sauteed with chili powder, cumin, and garlic powder). I used my Cuisinart to do the kneading for the seitan--it made things SO much easier.

Here's the seitan simmering in its broth:

The fajita mixture sauteeing on the stovetop:

Served with a dollop of salsa: