VeganMoFo Day 1

To make up for my long silence I present to you my lunches, times four! In September I bought a Laptop Lunchbox to bring my own healthy lunch with me to work.

My first lunch was full of V'Con's Chickpea Cutlets, rice pilaf, veggies, apple slices, salad dressing in the tiny container and a bag of dark chocolate covered blueberries. Was good!

My second lunch was my own take on a BLT with Lightlife's Smart Bacon standing in for poor dead pig. And honestly, who doesn't put Avocado on their BLTs? This was a dip-tastic lunch with ketchup in the kitty and elephant containers to plunge the tater tots into. A container of grapes rounded it all out nicely.
Next I made my very own Cornish pastry from the Vegan Lunch Box cookbook. These were so very very good! The pie crust was easy to make, the filling was delish and it traveled very well. No wonder hand held stuffed pasties have been around for centuries!
And finally I have a picture of a lovely bunch of broccoli! Ok it is really leftovers from my excellent dinner of Smoked Tofu with Lemon Pepper Broccoli over Mixed Grains

Let me know that store bought plantain chips do NOT hold a candle to homemade fresh ones. Now if only I could make these myself all thin and crisplike.

I hope to keep posting all month. I am throwing a potluck at my home this weekend for several VegWeb friends. Expect lots of yummy food posts from that as soon as I catch up on all my September backlog, which consists of 3 more food photos. Doh!

My camera is holding cupcakes hostage!

Last week I made cupcakes. Four dozen cupcakes to be exact. Two batches of Mexican Hot Chocolate and two of Mucho Margarita. I brought one dozen of each batch into work for a Relay for Life bake sale and needless to say, they went over quite well.

I snapped pictures of my awesome Sunshine burger lunch, cupcakes and probably more. But last night, after a Tuesday night marathon cooking session, my camera decided to hold the pics hostage! It wont even turn itself on, even plugged into the computer. I can only hope that removing the memory stick will either help or work in my other camera. *sigh*

The chocolate cupcakes were tasty. The hint of spice was like a scent memory with each bite invoking a head tilt and a vague look of "this tastes like something...". I could not find almond meal so mine were grainy as I walked the fine line of ground almonds and almond butter.

Margarita cupcakes are always a big hit. Everyone loves them and lime is such a great flavor that even virgin cuppers and frosting would be tasty. Though honestly, I think at my work the idea of booze in baked goods is awesome.

I took the rest of the cupcakes to the awesome people who participate in Beer Train Friday. Yup, my commute home on Fridays has people partying it up. They bring beer and last weekend in celebration of the then upcoming Cinco de Mayo they made margaritas on the train. So I traded a cupcake for a glass and snacked on chips and some of the hottest salsa I had ever tried.

Last weekend I had some yummy food like General Tso's Tofu, Channa Masala, and even some sushi and spicy veg miso soup. All from very accommodating restaurants in my area of Connecticut. Monday was leftover taco's from a nacho night last week.

Last night though, I cooked such an incredible plate of food that I really mourn the lack of pictures to share the goodness. I made a double batch of modified Chickpea Cutlets. My only modification is to use an awesome seasoning blend mix for the veg broth and twice the amount of chickpeas called for. These got baked in the oven with my roasting fingerling parsley potatoes and I added in some broccoli and cauliflower in another roasting pan. I even made a sliced mushroom sauce with onions, garlic and baby bellas.

After all that, I found time to whip up some chickpea salad to nosh on with veggies for a snack and do the dishes! I was so darn proud of myself. So proud that it may just be leftover night tonight even though my plan was ribz and rice.

Hopefully there will be pics next post, but for now I have more cupcakes to contemplate!

Teaser

There is an exchange currently in process on the veg*n board so I spent most of yesterday afternoon / evening cooking goodies to share with my Vegantine. I am not posting any recipes just the names of what I made.

Chickpea Nibbles:

Chocolate Covered Strawberries, Peanut Butter Cannonballs, Naked Sexy Low Fat Lemon Cupcake:

Cheezy Quakers though mine were made into flower and butterfly shapes:



And two more, last night's dinner of braised kale with onions and garlic, V'con's Cheezy Sauce covered potatoes and Boca Chick Patties.

Of course I had a helper this morning in taking pictures. Everyone, meet Gryphin. Who was trying to see if he could swipe my socks off the chair. Too bad mommy was watching!

Recipe Reviews: Gumbo & Pie

Since the awesome trip to Boston's Veg Food Fest netted me three cookbooks, I decided to plan this weeks menu around some of the new recipes I have in my hands.

First on Monday I opened my Little Vegan Monsters cookbook and decided the Mexican Pie sounded awesome. I followed the recipe as close as possible for me, which is never exactly. The recipe asked me to sauté about 12 ingredients including tofu. Rather than put it all together I added the oil, onions and tofu and let it sauté until the tofu was reasonably dry. Once it seemed slightly firm, about 15 minutes, I added everything else and sautéed more. The dough was lovely though I did diverge and use a wheat flour. Once everything was ready I assembled the 'pie'.

Needless to say that once I poured the entire filling into my largest casserole dish I did not have much room for the topping. Rather than simply use less topping I scooped half of the filling and put it in a separate casserole dish. I divided the topping equally and plopped it all in the oven as directed. This turned out satisfying, savory and tasting like tamales but without the work of stuffing corn husks! This hearty 'pie' had all the traditional (to me) Mexican flavors. Creamy Pinto beans, crisp corn kernels, sharply biting cilantro all married to a lush savory cornbread fit for a king. Next time my goal is to use the large casserole but make mini muffins from the excess topping.

Unfortunately my pictures were a horrible blurry mess and I did not want to disgrace this awesome recipe with poor pics, so you only have my word. I am not sure what I will try next but this cookbook is simple, easy to use and the first test pulled out a hearty B+ with a definite need to repeat this one.


On Thursday night I tried out Veganomicon's Smoky Pepper & Bean Gumbo shown above. This was amazing. Seriously smoky, savory and oh so filling. I followed the recipe exactly as directed and only had to leave two items out, as somehow my fridge was mysteriously out of beer! That was a tragedy.

The steps were simple, completely explained and even times given on how long to let the roux simmer and the onions & peppers sauté. I followed that exactly and it turned out beautiful. The flavors have that fire roasted flavor but the kidney beans impart a lush creamy mouth feel. Even the okra was perfect with its subtle green flavor and softness to the tooth. I did serve this with Jasmine rice dollop. It added a smooth base for the tomatoes and peppers to shine from.

I will be making this again and it rates an excited A for making me stuffed beyond belief with just that bowl. Winter is coming! Get your soup bowls ready!