Thanksgiving Leftovers

Okay, so I neglected to actually take any pictures of all the food I made for Thanksgiving. I wasn't a huge fan of the field roast, though. It was a little salty for me. I didn't just want to throw it out, though, so I decided to make it into a pot pie. And then I decided to turn my pot pie into miniature pot pies using muffin tins. The recipe (both for the crust and the filling) is loosely based on the recipe from the Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook. Their biscuit crust recipe calls for 2 friggin' pounds of butter/margarine, though! I didn't use NEARLY that much and mine was still tasty. The filling contains onion, celery, carrots, peas, and chopped up field roast. I didn't add any extra salt (or soy sauce like the recipe calls for) because the field roast was already a bit salty, and the recipe used vegetable broth, which also contains quite a bit of salt.

Pizza stones are awesome!

I finally got a pizza stone. It's official: I'm in love. This made the most perfect pizza yet. Instead of the usual quick pizza dough recipe that I normally use, I made the recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. It was awesome. It made enough dough for two pizzas, so I froze half of it and we'll have another pizza soon. I'm not actually a big fan of the faux pepperoni on here, but we had some to use up. I never ate pepperoni (or any other pork product) growing up, so one day recently when I had a coupon, I decided to try the fake stuff. Now, I have absolutely no idea if this tastes anything like real pepperoni, but I really don't think it adds anything special to the pizza. It also tends to burn, which my boyfriend says is because the real stuff is much fattier (yuck!). The soy cheese melted soooo much better on the pizza stone than it ever has before. Yum!

Sparkled Ginger Cookies and Orange "Chicken"

These are the sparkled ginger cookies from Vegan with a Vengeance. They are absolutely awesome and you should immediately drop what you are doing and go make some. After you do, you should probably hide most of them from yourself because you will want to inhale them in just one sitting.

And this is orange "chicken" (those are green peppers mixed in...I was running low on vegetables that day). The faux chicken are TVP chunks. This is a bastardized recipe from Bryanna Clark Grogan's Authentic Chinese Cooking. I was supposed to fry the TVP chunks before adding them to the sauce, but I wanted to go lower-fat (and less messy) so I baked them instead. That probably would have been fine, but I still battered them as per the frying instructions. They ended up kind of gooey. Oops.

I have cooked lots of food for Thanksgiving, but haven't taken any pictures yet. We are leaving for Nashville in a little while. I'm bringing a field roast (this will be my first time trying one--I'm really excited that we were able to find one at Earth Fare), cornbread stuffing, sweet potato latkes, gingerbread apple pie (from Vegan with a Vengeance), and pumpkin muffins (also from VWAV). I also have a can of cranberry sauce that I got from Whole Foods when I was visiting my parents a couple of weeks ago. Momma said that the kind I got would not be the jellied kind (which I don't like), but now I'm not so sure. I guess I'll be finding out for sure tomorrow.

Cannellini Piccata

I found this recipe on vegweb tonight while looking for a new use for a can of cannellini beans. I've never had piccata before and was worried it would be on the bland side since it didn't call for much in the way of spices. It was pure lemon-y deliciousness, though, and a nice change from marinara sauce. I'm glad I tried the recipe as is before adding spices to it.

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:

Guilt-Free Chocolate Brownie Cake

I promise we eat much more "real" food than we do dessert.
Yesterday I bought a quart of chocolate Silk soymilk. I don't know why I bought a whole quart when I'd never tried it before. I didn't like this stuff at all--it tastes almost bitter to me. I would feel awful throwing out that much soymilk, so I started looking for dessert recipes I could use it in. The first one I chose was Guilt-Free Chocolate Brownie Cake from Nava Atlas's Vegetarian Family Cookbook. I just replaced the regular soymilk with chocolate. This was tasty and simple. It only used about 1/4th a cup of soymilk, though. I see a lot of chocolate desserts in our future.

Golden Vanilla Cupcakes with Fluffy Buttercream Icing

I had leftover icing from the last cupcakes I made (actually, I STILL have leftover icing even after this), so I just had to make some more. This is another recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. The recipe had a choice to use non-hydrogenated margarine or oil. I went with oil just because it was faster and cheaper. I have a feeling the cupcakes would have turned out fluffier if I had used the margarine. They were still good, though.

Aloo Chana Masala

Apparently I have a thing for non-photogentic food. This was a simple dinner. I mainly followed the recipe on the back of a box of chana masala spice mix. It was a little spicy, so I added some plain soymilk to tone it down a bit. I really want to figure out how to make my Indian food have more of a sauce the way it does in restaurants.

Crimson Velveteen Cupcakes with Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting

Crimson Velveteen Cupcakes with Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I used black cherry concentrate instead of red food coloring, hence the lack of "crimson" color in the cupcakes. They still turned out really well. I have lots of leftover icing, so I'll have to make more cupcakes soon.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

I used the chocolate chip cookie recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, but took out 2 TB of flour and put in 2 TB of cocoa. I also added some almond milk (it was all I had on hand) since the batter was too dry. These turned out really well. They stayed soft, which, for me, is the mark of a good cookie. I took most of them to a Sukkot party last night (the ones in the picture are the ones I set aside for my boyfriend to eat at home) and they got eaten up.

Chipotle-Kissed Sweet Potato and Red Bean Chili with Sunny Corn Muffins

The chili is from Robin Robertson's Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker and the corn muffin is from theppk.com. I LOVE the muffins. The chili is good, but next time I will probably use less water, as I don't like my chili quite so soupy. I can never get enough sweet potatoes, though.

White Bean Sauce over Angel Hair Pasta

While I was at my parents' house for Rosh Hashanah, one of the local weekend news shows had a cooking segment where they made this chicken and feta cheese dish served over angel hair pasta. I recently bought some soy feta and had been wondering what to do with it. I never had real feta, so I really had no idea. I decided to make a vegan version of their dish. Instead of chicken, I used cannellini beans. First, I sauteed quite a bit of garlic in some olive oil, then I added a can of drained cannellini beans and a can of diced tomatoes (that way I can get affordable organic tomatoes....and my dicing skills with tomatoes are not exactly up to par). After that cooked for a few minutes, I added some dried basil and red pepper flakes. I really really really wanted to use fresh basil, but for the life of me I could not find any. Where do you get fresh basil if you don't have a garden? Next I crumbled in the soy feta and let it cook for a few minutes more. Served over angel hair pasta, this was a nice change from marinara sauce.

This was the soy feta:

Veggie Burgers and Fries

Veggie burgers and baked Cajun french fries, both from Vegan With a Vengeance. An all-American sort of meal. Well, all-American with a twist, anyway. I always add some chickpea flour to the veggie burger mix to help it hold together better, and normally I bake them. Today I pan-fried them like the recipe instructs, though. Actually, this is the first time I pan-fried them. They are more delicate this way, but very good.

West Indian Red Beans with Coconut Rice

This is another recipe from the Moosewood Restaurant's Simple Suppers. The recipe said to use either red pepper flakes or a chile. We had a habanero to use, so decided to be a little daring. The dish wasn't nearly as spicy as we feared, but we really liked it. The tomatoes and onions were a nice touch.

And Another Thing I Don't Have To Miss Out On....

Soy cheese pizza with mushrooms, green peppers, and garlic. The crust is the same recipe I used to make foccacia. I heart that recipe.

Who Ever Said Vegans Have To Miss Out?

Yes, that's right; I'm vegan and I can still make challah. Technically it's called water challah, since there's no egg in it. But it's still yummy.

Hot and Sour Stir-Fry with Five Spice Tofu

The recipe comes from The Moosewood Restaurant's Simple Suppers. It was very easy to make. For some protein, I added baked Chinese five spice tofu (I didn't add the spice--it was one of the Nasoya ones that came that way). I added a bit more red chili paste than the recipe called for because I love spicy food. I'll definitely make this again. I love when recipes say they are simple and actually are (but are tasty, too!).

Jalapeno Poppers

My boyfriend's coworker grows peppers, but doesn't eat them. More for us! The filling is made with Tofutti cream cheese (the non-hydrogenated kind), mozzarella-flavored soy cheese, and Bac-Uns. Next time I think I'll add some garlic. I'd also like to find a recipe for baking them--I try to avoid frying things when possible.

These are a few of my favorite things

Okay, actually it's just one thing, but it's really my new favorite toy. I don't know how I lived so long without one. It makes things so much easier. All those recipes that call for a blender to process dry ingredients that blenders just aren't meant to handle? Yeah, now I have something that actually works. I used to lament about how we don't all have industrial-strength blenders. Now I will stop lamenting about that, as I realize I don't need one (I did get a new blender for my birthday, too, though, as I somehow lost my old one in the move).