HALP, PLZ!

Some of you may know, but for those of you who don't, I live in what may possibly be the least vegan-friendly metropolitan area. Ever. The closest health food store is about a 30 minute drive from my apartment and the selection is kind of limited. For the past year and a half, I've been avidly searching for miso in any grocery store I go to and it simply is not there. I've looked in the international food section and nothin'. Someone tell me where you typically find miso in your town with a staggering population of 30,000. Plz?

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

The only thing richer than chocolate chip pancakes for brunch are the damn Waltons. (Go ahead, slap your knee. We both know you want to.) Dripping with Earth Balance and and maple syrup, these are heart attack waiting to happen. A delicious heart attack.

Chocolate Chip Pancakes:
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
3 tbs Splenda (yes, I am yet another slave to the Splenda con)
1 cup soy or rice milk
2 tbs canola oil
substitute for one egg (I use Ener-G)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup chocolate chips (or more)

Heat a large pan on medium-low heat before mixing ingredients. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl and wet in a separate medium bowl. Combine mixtures. Add your chips until well combined. I find it is best to use a ladle to spoon your batter in to the pan to get the perfect measurements for a pancake. Also, I discovered that it far better to have someone to share these pancakes. Pancakes are obviously the kind of food that requires company.

Vegan MoFo Post 4: Hodge Podge

I feel like one big failure this month. It's already the 29th of October and I've only watched 27 horror movies (I will post the final count, I know you're just dying) and only posted 4 Vegan MoFo entries. What can I say? It was a mildly hectic month.



Ah, fall. Finally, it's cold enough outside that I voluntarily seek refuge from the cold in a sweltering kitchen. Generally speaking, I think posting chili recipes is utterly pointless so I'm not gonna! I made this with the essential baking dish of cornbread. Cornbread on crack, that is.



This conrbread recipe was the one found in La Dolce Vegan and I was not very happy with it. While the outer texture was very nice, it was still gooey in the middle and it was a little bland.



All this meal made me crave was some pad thai. Just your standard seitan stir fry served atop some rice noodles. Complete with brocoli, mushrooms, water chestnuts, and makeshift teriyake sauce.



I imagine Isa Chandra Moskowitz had envisioned greater things for her Mac Daddy recipe, but that is all irrelevant now. I present: TVP Helper!



The face of instant-one-pot-meal joy. That's right, I'm putting this stuff in boxes and packets and slappin' this face on it to make a killing. Our slogan: Remember when you were 5 years old at the dinner table denying that mass of macaroni and and mysterious creamy sauce with bits of crumbly brown matter swimming in it that mom would force upon you? We forkin' do!

Vegan MoFo Post 3: Trip to Columbus

For my upcoming birthday, my mother decided to take me to Columbus for a day of vegan bakeries and thrift store shopping. We even stocked up on obscure kitchen goods at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. The first restaurant we went to was Dragonfly. We made it in time for the brunch special which included the buffet, (about five or six options of plates of cold stuff), and one entree. This was really expensive and the tab was about $45 for my mom and I just to eat there.

The second place we went to was Pattycake Bakery. Oh. My. GAWD. I only spent about $15 there but I should've stocked up on vegan baked goods. The cool thing about this particular bakery is that you can order stuff off the website. My mother, who I hail as a baking jedi, was seriously impressed with this place. 'Nuff said. On with pictures of the nomz!

Black Bean Salad, Sesame and Collard Pasta Salad, and Cashew Rice Salad

Mixed Greens Salad with Maple Mustard Dressing



Concord Grape Pancakes

Sundried Tomato and Cauliflower Omelet

Whoopie Pies, a delicacy

Cookies, more Whoopie Pies, Spelt Fudge Brownies..



Lovely Lemon Cupcakes


sdkjfhdshjkshgkj. Cheese Cake.

Vegan MoFo Post 2: A Tale of Two Pastas

Kale and Walnut Pesto

This was the first time I've ever had/prepared/cooked homemade pesto. It certainly won't be the last. Pine nuts are too expensive and generally I only keep dried basil in the kitchen. Here is the product of one cheap vegan.

Kale Walnut Pesto:
1 large bunch of kale
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped rather finely
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (you could use soy Parmesan)
salt and pepper to taste

Note: I wanted my pesto to be greener after adding the nutritional yeast, so I added a couple handfuls of spinach, as well.

Seriously, do I need to give instructions for how to prepare a pesto sauce? Blend, god damn it. Then serve over 2 cups of pastaof your choice. I chose brown rice rotini.

Artichoke Chik'n Penne

This was beautiful. I could probably eat this multiple times a week for the rest of my life and not be bored with it or dwell on the repercussions of my carb consumption. Noms.

Artichoke Chik'n Penne:
2 cups penne pasta
1 8 oz jar artichoke hearts
2-3 cloves garlic
1 package Light Life chik'n strips
2 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs basil
salt and pepper to taste

Drain the artichoke hearts and saute the garlic in the juice from the jar. when garlic starts to brown add artichokes and lemon juice. Saute for about 5 minutes then add remaining ingredients. Serve over pasta. Add a few dollops of Earth Balance to your pasta so the noodles aren't so dry.

Vegan MoFo: Post 1

We've been eating good in this ol' efficiency apartment o' mine. I issued a verbal memo to my coworkers that if they have any cravings this month whatsoever for a baked good of any kind to let me know. This is the product of said memo:

German Chocolate Cupcakes- sheer decadence

A coworker of mine recently began eatin' veg'n and requested that I make some cupcakes. I was pleased when my coworker admitted to making his 'o' face while licking the wrapper. Cupcakes never really receive a higher rating than that.

Plate Lickin' TVP Lasagna

Alright, alright. I was going to try to wait until my actual birthday to have my favorite dish ever: classic spinach lasagna, but 1) tofu ricotta and 2) tofu fuckin' ricotta. Also, 3) this merely presents the opportunity for someone to take me out to dinner for my birthday and allows me to sit on my ass for an entire day. I used the tofu ricotta recipe from How It All Vegan! truly a staple in this kitchen. I made a layer that had sauteed cherry tomatoes, TVP, and mushrooms. Nomz!

Banana Walnut Muffins

So I'm sure you're not supposed to cook with two week old bananas, but I did any way. And, guess what? It was forkin' delicious. I used a go-to recipe for banana nut bread on VegWeb and instead of throwing it in a loaf pan, I threw it in a muffin pan. These were great for mornings when I have class and function for a solid 5 hours merely on coffee and cigarettes, with maybe the occasional bag of Fritos. Perfect on the go breakfast and totally nutritious.

Lentil Couscous Curry

At a glance, it would appear that someone has relieved there bowels atop my plate of dry coucous. Meanies! Well, fret not interweb fewd junkies; it's curried red lentils. This recipe was retrieved from VegWeb and is a very flexible recipe. However, it's not a very photogenic one. I used carrots and a green bell pepper in mine. I should've mad emore curry sauce because my couscous was a little dry.

Homemade Falafel Pitas with Tzatziki Sauce

What a horribly nutritious meal. Falafel balls made from scratch? Tzatziki sauce made with cucumbers grown from my man's mother's garden? I told you, we eat good.

Vegan MoFo is Upon Us!

.. and, I am damn excited. October is the ideal month for me for the following reasons: 1) an entire month dedicated to the delicacy that is vegan fewd nomz, 2) my birfday is this month, and 3) HALLOWEEEEEEEEEEEEEN. This means that I have thirty one days to cram as many horror movies into one month as humanly possible. From 80's horror to 90's, from 70's exploitation to Universal Monsters, from Japanese horror to.. You get the idea. I admit, I've cheated and already gotten a head start on my horror movie intake. What can I say?

I haven't posted a lot of late and not due to lack of cooking. If you haven't noticed it's late September which means I've been back in school for almost a month. And, it's kind of kicking my ass. Also, when I've been cooking, it's been evening time meals where I'm trying to relax. Taking pictures of my food has been the last thing on my mind when a big plate of tastiness is sitting in front of me. Anyway, without further ado, here is what I've been cooking up.
















This was my second illness soup: Asian Mushroom Noodle Soup. It was inspired by a recipe I found in one of my mom's many low-carb cookbooks. One thing I will never submit to is this low-carb craze we find ourselves in. Carbs 'til death! The recipe in the book called for pork, so I subbed seitan. This recipe is really basic and really anyone could make it on the fly. It incorporated cabbage, carrots, button mushrooms, and wheat spaghetti noodles. (Soba noodles would've been MUCH better, though.) This was a really healthy meal and even the sodium content was very mild.















Remember that tempeh stew I made like, a post ago? The left over tempeh was used to make these: Tempeh burritos. I didn't do anything special. I steamed tempeh with some soy sauce and then topped it with some homemade peach mango salsa. Does anything sound more elegant than 'peach mango salsa'? I think not.
















This hearty red lentil pasta sauce is one of my favorites that I've made recently. Next time, though, I'd rather make it with a different pasta, one that holds sauce a bit better. This is a great alternative to those fatty fake meat grounds that you usually throw in your pasta sauce to make spaghetti.















About a year ago, I couldn't stand the taste of tahini. I would avoid making homemade hummus just to avoid it. I found it impossible to cook with and even more impossible to scarf down. Tahini is definitely an acquired taste, but once you do acquire it, you're hooked. Using tahini in sauces and such is all about combining it with the proper amount of water. Tahini has a very potent nutty flavor and needs water to counteract it and tone it down. I love love love this recipe for soba noodles with tahini sauce! This was my first time cooking soba noodles and I couldn't stop snacking on them while I waited for the rest of my meal to finish cooking. Such an awesome flavor. A note: I think next time I make an alfredo sauce I will mix equal parts tahinia and water to the garlic, soy milk, margarine mixture. Tahini with the right amount of water has a bit of a cheesy quality that is absolutely delicious.