insert clever title here

We eat good at our house.  Although the meals you are about to witness were mostly simple fare, damn, were they delicious.

Behind door number one, I give you...    Chinese night!

teryaki udon noodles w/veggies, spicy broccoli, sesame kale, baked tofu

This was all crazy awesome, but a tad salty for my taste (which is another way of saying that it was waaaaay too salty, because...  me like-a the salt).  Still, loads of veggies, noodles, and tofu that you get to eat with chopsticks?  I'm in!

Michael made this vegetable soup a few days ago that tasted exactly like Campbell's alphabet veggie soup.  Except way better.  It was eerie.

mmm mmm better

I'm not totally sure what he did, but I do know that the base is water, tomato paste, and 'beef' bouillon.  That way, it's not too tomato-y, but just tomato-y enough.  Veggies included carrots, red bell peppers, corn, peas, potatoes, spinach, onions, and napa cabbage.  Even better the next day, by the way.  Tres bien, mon amor!  Hey, is that French?  Did I just speak French?  Since I don't speak French, I have no idea.  (Shelly?)

Next up is a wrap that was Michael's idea, but my own doing.  Jamaican jerk tofu wrap!

many 'jerk' jokes thus ensued

I found a Jamaican spice rub recipe somewhere (thought I saved it, but alas...) that I used to marinate tofu strips in (along with some water to make it more...liquid), then baked those.  All nestled snugly against carrots, cabbage, and tomatoes...heavenly.  And spicy!  Wowza.  

By the way, I have declared this week that cabbage is the new lettuce.  Namely, napa cabbage.  It's always crunchy, it's light and lovely, and you can cook it, so it's versatile.  Lettuce, move over!  Cabbage is movin' to town.

Oh, we ate those wraps with some of my signature MexiRice (tm).

love in a bowl

Except I made way too much, so I'm still up to my ears in MexiRice (tm).  By the way, MexiRice (tm) just consists of brown rice, canned tomatoes, garlic powder, cumin, and cayenne.  Oh, and water and a bouillon.  The key, my friends, is the ratio.  But since I never measure, I couldn't really tell you what that ratio is.  Experiment!  Try it out!  It's so fricking good.

We made this lovely piece of radness for lunch on Saturday:

chickpea salad of the ...gods?

We were starving.  We found half a baguette in the fridge.  And a can of chickpeas.  The result is almost too predictable.  Goodness was it good though!  Nom.  No recipe used, just tossing things in.  Things tossed in may include the following:

chickpeas

garlic dill relish

garlic powder

mustard

nayonaise

parsley

green onions

celery

salt

pepper

And finally!  Another test recipe from the Cookin' with my Craw-Daddy zine!  This one was to die for.  I almost died.  It was that good.

roasted jalepeno cornbread pancakes w/fresh salsa

My friends, I would not lie to you.  These were light, fluffy, flavorful, and omni approved.  They even had cilantro in them (in both the pancakes and the salsa), and Michael and I both were left wanting more.  Seriously.  Once this zine comes out, you should get it if only for this recipe.  Amazing.  A perfect way to celebrate national pancake day and Mardi Gras combined.

I do not kid.

Anywho, I have dishes to do and it's LOST night (and Top Chef!) and dinner needs made before we dissolve our brains in front of the television.  Have a lovely rest of your week, everone!

Vday, testers, and other great stuff

Wow, it's been a busy week.  I can't believe it's been so long since I posted!  This is gonna be a big one, kids.  And before I forget (or you tune out before the end of my post haha...) don't forget to:

a) enter my contest for a $50 gift certificate for Earth Shoes here, and 

b) make sure you come back TOMORROW to see who won!  

I'll need all of you to come check to see if you won and if you are the lucky one, you'll need to send me an email (link on my profile page) with your name and email address so that I can send it to the peeps at Onlineshoes.com and they can get your your gift certificate.

Now that that business is done with, we must talk about food.  I'm gonna start with the big Valentine's day eats.  Ok, so I have to admit that up until a few days ago, I had completely forgotten about chocolate covered potato chips.  Anybody else have these before?  I remember in high school or undergrad having gotten a couple boxes of these and LOVING them.  There's just something about that sweet/salty combo that really does it for me.  So anyway, I was browsing through a Rachey Ray magazine at work the other day and saw a 'recipe' for chocolate covered potato chips.  I mean, seriously, leave it to Rachel frigging Ray to remind me of something so terrible for my health and then encourage me to actually make it myself.  Well, how could I refuse?  That woman.  There's something about her that I really love/hate.  Mostly, though, I really dislike her.  But I also just can't help but like her.  What is wrong with me?!

Regardless of my feelings for her, it planted a seed in my mind, and I made chocolate covered potato chips yesterday for us to munch on.

pure decadence

This is ridiculously easy to do.  Just melt some dark chocolate with some soymilk (or, I used rice milk because we had it for some reason).  Dip in some kettle chips (nonflavored).  Let drip on a rack with wax paper underneath.  When they're done dripping, put 'em in the fridge.  These are pretty good, but the chocolate I used was pretty bitter, so I'd add some sugar next time if I got the same chocolate.  Because, you know, the ones that I remember were, of course, made with milk chocolate.  Which is way different (and honestly way crappier) than the chocolate we eat now.  So what I'm basically saying is that you can't shove these into your mouth like you're popping M&Ms (oh, my old M&M addiction...R.I.P.) because they are richer and more of a....delicacy?  Can I call chocolate covered potato chips a delicacy?  

For dinner we made a chickn parmesan pizza.  This is the ultimate in easy.  Crust it up (I used a different crust recipe than the one from VWAV because I wanted a doughier crust), add garlic, onions, spinach and prebake for about 10 minutes at 450F.  Then add a layer of pizza sauce, lots of chopped basil, some sliced Boca chicken patties, more sauce, then your fake cheese of choice.  We used Teese and somehow, that crap didn't melt.  

non-melty, but still delicious

I think I sliced the Teese too thick, because it was melty on the underside, but still solid on the top.  It was fine to eat though.  Oh, and make sure you use Boca ORIGINAL chicken patties (not the organic ones or whatever) and still check your ingredients because apparently there is some conspiracy out there where some Boca chicken patties have milk in them or eggs or something, and some do not.  Inconsistency.  But you have to use these kind of breaded patties (if you find another brand, use those then) because chickn parmesan needs to be...breaded.  It's part of the deal.  This pizza turned out really good, but there was one weird thing about it.  Apparently our corner market is selling bags of fresh basil that is thai basil, without being labelled as such.  We noticed there was a strange licorice-y taste to our basil (after we put it one the pizza of course) and realized that we were eating some non basic basil.  It wasn't bad, but it was definitely different, haha...  So go for plain old basil if you make this.

slicer

We even tried microwaving our slices to melt that stuff, and it was a no-go.  It did, however, make it insanely hot and I burned the crap outta my mouth.  C'est la vie, eh?

And since you can never have enough chocolate, we made Chocolate Covered Cherry Pudding Cakes from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen.  Oh man, were these ever rich.

puddingtacular

My mom used to make pudding cake when I was a kid.  And I just couldn't resist trying it out myself.  Worth it!  And really, it was very easy.  I even bought ramekins yesterday so that I could make this.  That's dedication, baby.  Don't they look great?  Very intense (make sure to let these cool so that they can be more pudding-ish and less liquid-y) and the cherries and chocolate go together perfectly, of course.  A lovely end to a lovely day.

Ok, enough Valentine's day mushiness.  Next up?  Some tester recipes for the Cookin' with my Craw-Daddy zine!  This past weekend, Michael was out of town and I made the Swampy Tofu Scramble for dinner.

swamp thang

I was not really expecting a tofu scramble to knock my socks off, but consider my socks completely knocked.  This is honestly the best tofu scramble I've ever eaten in my life (and I've had quite a few).  Something about the flavor combo is just...perfection.  Plus there's a secret trick that makes it nice and creamy and super wonderful.  I liked it so much that I made it for Michael on Monday for dinner again, along with these bad boys:

Yell'er Hush Puppies

The flavor of these was really yummy.  They were a tad greasy, but they are hush puppies after all.  That's kind of how that goes.  Michael made these and we ate them with lots of mustard, and it was good.

ragin' cajun mealtime

Well, I dunno how cajun brussels sprouts are, but we steamed some and they went very nicely with this meal.  Made me feel a tad better about the fried-ness of the hush puppies.  I also think that the hush puppy batter would work really well as a batter for frying other things, like, oh, say...corn dogs?  Mwahahaha...  

Next up is just a meal worth mentioning because it was full of mushrooms and I ate all of them.  Shocker!

could i be changing my ways?

Michael found a mixed container of wild mushrooms while he was out of town and he sauteed them up quite simply with peppers and onions.  They were insanely delicious.  I don't know...but...I may be starting to like mushrooms other than oyster mushrooms.  Wonders never cease.  We made some couscous (that I think just had nutritional yeast in it, honestly) and I sauteed some kale that I had beforehand massaged with lemon juice (kale loves to be massaged with lemon juice, you must try this).  I just sauteed some garlic and one shallot, then added the lemony kale.  I have to say, it was the best kale I've ever eaten.  For such a simple meal, this was crazydelicious.

I also made something with another kind of mushroom for Michael's mom, who came to town this week.  It was the faux clam linguine that I've made before, but it turned out a million times better and I'm kicking myself for not taking photos of it.  

Oh well.

These babies are something you just have to make.  You have to!

relish oat crackers

Celine, of Have Cake, Will Travel, is a genius.  She also tested out some of the Zukay Live Foods, and made these amazing crackers out of the garlic relish.  Since the garlic relish was my favorite out of the whole product-testing-batch, and also since I've never made my own crackers, and also since they seemed so darned easy...I made them.  The day she posted them.  And they.  Are.  Wonderful.  And you don't have to have that specific relish.  I'm sure there is garlic relish out there besides that brand.  GO MAKE THESE!  Immediately!  Recipe here.

To finish, I will leave you with a sign that spring is close.  Don't despair.  I had these for lunch last Saturday, when it was sunny and 70F.  

a little taste of awesomeness

And while that warm streak was a bit of a fluke (it's much colder now), it gave me hope that it will be warm again.  There will be strawberries.  There will be fresh tomatoes and peppers and trips to the farmers market.  I will be able to go outside without a coat and without shivering and without hating life.  I just can't wait.

Now go enter my contest!

good to be back, plus a hotdog rant

I have had more internet woes.  Nuff said.  Anyway, here's I be.  Superbowl Sunday!  I have a lot of work to do today.  I haven't watched much football this season, but I am sort of excited to see Pittsburgh in the bowl.  And that requires much food to be made...and a lot of cleaning to do before I start cooking!  It's been kind of a weird week, a lazy one, which I don't always like, but maybe I needed a week of lazy.  I've been kind of tired.  Anyway, I have my first bit of news to reveal!  If you noticed in the sidebar, I have a new little icon that means I am now a featured blogger on Wellsphere in the vegan community!  This is a site dedicated to healthy living, and yeah, I was probably as surprised as you are that they contacted me to be a part of their community.  Still, I must remind myself that I do try to live a healthy lifestyle and that if anyone can learn anything from my ramblings about how awesome vegan food is, then I'm happy to be a participant!  Head on over to their site and check out other vegan bloggers.  Most of them seem to be doctors and experts, so I feel priveleged to be considered among them.

Food time.  I have a lot of catching up to do here!  We haven't cooked anything groundbreaking this week, but there have been some interesting meals.

teese quesadilla

So maybe quesadillas aren't really that interesting, but they are when you have Teese!  This was my first teese encounter, and it's pretty good.  That's the newish cheddar flavor, and I found the flavor itself to be better than FYR cheddar.  The texture is still a little weird, but at least it melts!  You see, I used to be quite the quesadilla addict back in my vegetarian/omni days.  It's a super quick lunch and it's gooey and comforting.  This pretty much hit the nail on the head under those criteria.  Still, I honestly think I like the flavor of my own cheeze sauce better, but it's a helluva lot less work to use teese.   Anyway, I had this for lunch twice this week, so it couldn't have been too terrible, right?

soycurl fajitas

Can you tell I recently  made an order from Vegan Essentials?  This was my first soycurl experience as well, and I have to say that I love them.  I was a bit suspicious of their crusty appearance at first, but they really soak up a load of flavor and have a great texture!  Plus, they cost waaaaaay less than Morningstar chickn strips and don't have a 'flavor' to begin with.  These fajitas (made by Michael) are made with peppers and a red onion.  Michael read somewhere that traditional garnishes to Mexican burritos/fajitas/etc are radishes and green cabbage.  I have never heard this ever in my entire life, but it was delicious!  I was worried that they would taste too...  well, radish-y and cabbage-y, but somehow they flavors complemented the fajitas really amazingly well.  They add just the perfect amount of crunch without getting soggy, like regular lettuce does.  If you would like to attempt this, make sure you drizzle the radishes and cabbage with some lime juice and then salt & pepper them.  That makes them extra yummy.

roasted tempeh with veggies

Ok, I have to admit that all of the dishes you've seen so far were made by Michael, including this one.  I was in a bit of a cooking slump this week for various reasons, but I think I'm out of it now.  I hope.  Thank goodness I have him to help me out when I feel that way.  Still, a schedule change happened this week that put me a little out of whack, so I had to get used to it.  Next week will be better.  Anyway, this is some marinated tempeh roasted up with red potatoes, mushrooms, asparagus, red onions, and garlic.  It was so good!  I don't know what was in the marinade, I'm sorry.  But it was salty and kind of soy-y and altogether very good.

tempeh with bulgur pilaf

I did contribute something to this meal, however.  That's a bulgur pilaf with leeks, and it was amazing.  We haven't had much bulgur lately, mostly because we ate it so much this summer that I think we got burned out, but I had a hankering for a healthy grain, so this emerged!  I even have a recipe for you.

Bulgur Pilaf w/Leeks

1:2 parts dry bulgur: water (i used a coffee mug to measure, so mine was probably 1.5 cups bulgur to 3 cups water)

2 small leeks, thinly sliced (ALL of them, even the dark green parts)

1 shallot, thinly sliced

1 Tbsp EVOO

3-4 Tbsp red wine vinegar

juice of one small lemon

1/4 cup chopped parsley

salt and pepper to taste

This was so simple, guys.  First heat up your oil in a large skillet.  Saute leeks first for about 2-3 minutes, then add shallots and continue to saute until soft.  Add bulgur, water, and red wine vinegar.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 12-15 minutes.  Uncover, add lemon juice and parsley, then taste and add salt and pepper until you think it's right.  That's it!  Especially good served with roasty toasty tempeh.

pizza...?

Oh, this was just to prove that we did have pizza again Monday night.  And it was even better this time.  We also had mac n cheeze, but I didn't take a photo.  Just imagine pasta shells covered in yellow.  Yay!  Mac n Cheeze!

buddha chocolate

I just thought this was cute...  It's a buddha shaped chocolate (also from Vegan Essentials) that has hazelnut bits in his belly.  I got this for Michael when I did the order (in addition to other yummy chocolates for us to share...we don't get chocolate much here) because he's very interested in Eastern religions, Buddhism in particular.  So adorable!

skallops

Watching Jamie make scallops all the time on Top Chef and hearing Fabio saying stuff about 'This isn't Top Scallop!' in his crazyawesome accent finally got to me.  I ordered a can of veggie skallops.  We sauteed them with some sesame oil, tamari, sriracha and sesame seeds...  and then...  (I'm almost too ashamed to admit this...)  ....

...   added them to Chinese food that we ordered.  Ok, ok, that is so lazy, I know, but it was really pretty good!  The skallops themselves were mostly just ok (the flavor was great, but the texture was a little strange).  They were just like chunks of seitan, really.  Still, worth the experience, I guess.  And I got some greasy lo mein out of it.  Worth it!

agave spiced cornbread w/beanie weenies

This cornbread is from the testing of recipes for the Cookin with my Craw-Daddy zine.  For some reason, mine didn't rise up and get fluffy, but the flavor of it was amazing!  Slightly sweet and spicy from chilis.  I found it to taste a little like hush puppies, which cannot be a bad thing.  And then, those are beanie weenies.  I've posted about them before...  But I have to say:  vegan hotdogs rule.  They are the one fake meat item that we buy regularly, and I was trying to figure out why that was...  First off, they only have like 45 calories per dog, which is ridiculously awesome because you can eat like 3 of them without even feeling the least bit guilty.  Also, I think it's because hot dogs themselves (omni ones) are such bullshit that they're really easy to recreate.  There must just be some universal 'hot dog flavor' that they add to all hot dogs, be it a cow, pig, turkey, or soy dog.  Granted, the texture of soydogs aren't the same, but..uh...thank goodness!  Regular hot dogs are standardly horrendous in all ways.  I do not understand why omnis the world over don't just switch to soydogs.  I mean, they don't know what's in their hotdogs anyway (nor do they wish to, I'd imagine...blegh!), so why not at least eat one that's good for you?  

In conlusion, soydogs rule.  Except LightLife soydogs, those suck really bad (weird flavor).

Ok, it's noon.  Time to wake up my Michael and start cleaning so that I can start cooking! 

Jessica tested, Michael approved

So, for whatever reason, the internet is working.  I'm actually stealing someone else's right now, which hasn't worked all through the previous week, but right now, is.  I'm taking advantage and posting; hopefully it won't die on me halfway through, right?  First off, I know I said I had recipes for you, but upon retesting one of them, I realized that the first time was a fluke.  It was a seitan recipe that was defreakinglicious.  I tried to recreate it last night, from memory (but now taking notes) and it didn't taste the same.  Therefore, I have more testing to do.  The other recipe was for a butternut squash and leek risotto.  That's pretty self explanatory though, and again, I didn't write down what I did specifically, so I forget.  I am completely lame, I know.  I do have some scraps of paper with notes on them, however, and really do plan to make these happen again so that you can have the recipes, because they are the ultimate in yum  Want to see how yummy?

i admit to my use of flash

I was so hungry by the time I churned this out that I almost forgot to take a picture.  This plate was actually sitting on my lap at the time of said picture taking, and no flash just wasn't cutting it.  And I also want to point out that I spent over an hour yesterday looking for my tripod and can't find the damned thing.  I really do want to take better pictures of my food.  There is no reason for me not to.  Well, now there is, because apparently my tripod has gone the way of the buffalo.  

At any rate, that's the seitan cutlet that I'm talking up, and dude, seriously, it was amazing.  Denser than the usual recipe, which I like.  I'm not a fan of 'fluffy' seitan.  This one is not.  Fluffy, that is.  On top is a gravy Michael mixed up that had orange zest in it and it was the yum.  In the back you see my risotto which was creamy and savory/sweet.  And it had leeks, with which you cannot go wrong.  

tempeh blt

This is a sammie that had all odds against it, and still turned out delicious.  We wanted BLTs, but had no fakin bacun, but there was a package of tempeh in the fridge.  However, we didn't have, like, any of the ingredients for the marinade in VWAV, so we winged it.  And hello buddy did it turn out wonderful.  I do remember the recipe for this one, but not the specific measurements.  I was going to go figure it out real quick when I transfered the pictures from my computer to Michael's desktop for uploading, but then the internet started working and I don't want to jinx myself by moving one inch.  This one I will have for you, tomorrow probably, since I'll be doing W.I.P. Wednesday.  

Our friend Chase, who was here on New Years and loved our food was here for both of the above  meals and loved all of it.  I don't think he finished his risotto, but he only left like 2 bites, so it couldn't have been that bad.  I figure if something is omni-approved, it must be fairly decent.  Well, unless that person has terrible taste.  So I guess the jury is still out.

Anyway, on to more exciting things:  I am testing recipes for a future vegan cajun cookzine by Sarah (she doesn't have a regular blog up yet, so I can't link to anything for you) called Cookin' with my Craw-Daddy.  Here are my first two attempts!

Creole Stuffed Mushrooms

Or, Muffuletta Mushrooms, she hasn't decided on the title.  I like muffuletta better, personally.  Anyway, these were really good!  Very spicy and sausage-y (but using TVP, nothing 'fake') with a fabulous taste of olives.  I was highly impressed with this one.  I'm no expert on cajun cooking, but if spiciness and tastiness are key, then...there ya go!  And for those of you (coughmecough) that don't really love mushrooms, Michael and I decided that the mixture would be completely wonderful stuffed into red bell peppers as well.  Michael did love the mushrooms though, and ate them all up with no hesitation.  Success!

Smothered Potatoes

This is another spicy, spicy creation.  The method for cooking the potatoes is pretty genius and they are perfectly tender, with just the right amount of kick.  I'd say these would be rockin' with a tofu scramble.  They weren't at all bad with the mushrooms, either!  Anyway, you should definitely look forward to getting this zine, and keep checking back here because more recipes are being posted for me to try out regularly.  I'm so happy to be a tester for something, especially something as yummy and awesome as this!

Just for kicks, here's my plate:

messy at best

You can see that I put a bunch of nutritional yeast on my tatoes and used a lot of the leftover mushroom stuffing to top one of my seitan cutlets (that the recipe isn't ready for yet).  

soup 4eva

Since it's so freaking cold here, and also since Michael and I both have been a little sickly, we've been eating a lot of soup.  In fact, I'm making more tonight.  The above specimen is something Michael whipped up for our lunch this past week.  It's a carrot soup, but not like a creamy one.  It's brothy (which I love), but still has carrots pureed up in it.  Just the perfect amount of spice and hotness and wonderfulness inside.  He also made some couscous that was bangin'.  His goal was to make everything in the same color family (warm toned oranges).  Totally worked.

And just to prove to you how cold it is here:

kitchen window frostastic

Guys, that is not the type of frosting that yours truly gets excited about.  In fact, quite the opposite is true.  Stay warm, everyone!  

I still have other news that I am bursting at the seams to tell you about, but...  I can't yet.  What!  hahaha...  

p.s. happy inauguration day!