Tax Season is Finally Over

Yes, I know that tax season officially ended (in the US at least) on April 15th, but I have spent the last couple of weeks recuperating from it.  Sorry that I didn’t do any posts while running the tax office, but I did not realize how exhausting it would be, until I started the season.  Near the end, I didn’t even do a lot of cooking, simply because I didn’t know how busy the office might be and when or what I would be able to eat.  Most of my meals the last couple of weeks before the 15th were either sandwiches (made with Field Roast), and quick stir fry with frozen vegetables, Pop-tarts (the Brown Sugar Cinnamon without icing are vegan) and Larabars.  Not exactly healthy, but they kept me going.  And since the 15th, I really haven’t done a lot of cooking either.  It is so easy to just sit down and do nothing. 

I do plan on getting all the pictures up of what I did do, and will most likely do it in just one post.  It may be all pictures, but that may be the easiest way to do it. 

As for this week, I’ve done a few things.  The first is I made my absolutely favorite dessert out of Vcon again, the Banana Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding.  I made it with the SilkAlmond Original and used dark Agave in place of the maple syrup.  Since the almond milk is already sweetened, I only used 1/4 cup instead of the 1/2 cup called for in the recipe.  As you can see, it came out just right and isn’t to sweet.  If it hadn’t been sweet enough, that would have been easy to solve with some chocolate syrup drizzled over it. 

This isn’t what I had planned on for dinner, but what I had planned on eating, seemed a bit to much for dinner tonight.  I’ll eat it tomorrow.  Since I still had two of the Home-style Vegan Meatloaf in the refrigerator, that seemed like an easy main dish and decided that a side dish of sautéed frozen spinach and corn would make a simple dinner.   All I had to do was finish the mini meatloaf in the toaster oven, since I only partially baked them when they were made last week.  While that was baking, I put the spinach and corn in the non stick skillet and cooked them till the spinach was done.  I added a bit of Mrs. Dash Italian Seasoning to the veggies and a ribbon of BBQ sauce to the mini meatloaf. 

Comfort Food for Cooler Days

Yes, you did read that title correctly. Fall has arrived for us Floridians and we have our second cold front come through the state today. It’s not as cool as it could be, but 60s and 70s are nice compared to 80s (and did you hear that Dallas got snow today). Now if the humidity would just go down. I actually still have to run the AC occasionally to get the humidity out of the apartment. However, this does mean that I can use my oven and so it has been getting ample use this week.



On Monday I made some Gluten-Free Hippie Loaf (from the Happy Herbivore blog). And last night I made the Ginger Roasted Winter Vegetables from VwaV. So they both were for dinner last night. I’ve wanted to make this dish for a while, but have had one problem, the butternut squash. I’m really not able to prep that in my kitchen, but am lucky enough to be able to buy it already cut up for a few weeks each fall in November, so this has been on hold till it came back into the stores. I made this with dark agave, since I didn’t have enough maple syrup and amazingly enough it didn’t get to dark and caramelized wonderfully.



Tonight, I made some Mac Daddy from VCON, using the chickpea variation. However, I did change the recipe just a bit, since I don’t have a pan as big as called for in the recipe. I made it in an 8x8 cake pan and used 1 can of chickpeas with one batch of Cheezy Sauce. It cooked in the oven for 25 minutes and after sitting for 10 minutes it was ready. If you haven’t made this yet and am not sure that you want a really saucy Mac and Cheese, you may want to try it this way. I may have to make a second batch of the Cheezy Sauce for reheating, but that is really not a problem; because I can still control how much sauce goes into the dish. And it should reheat nicely in the toaster oven.

Things I Have been Cooking Lately

Sorry to be away for so long. Due to my tax class, I really did not cook at all the first week of the month. But that is now completed (I passed) and may result in some work starting in January, but I won’t know about that till December. And I have been cooking a lot, since my refrigerator totally ran out of food.



The first thing I made was on November 6, the only day that week with no class. I decided to make the Curried Udon Noodle Stir Fry from VCON, which had been on my list for the past few weeks. It turned out fairly good, but I did make a few errors. The first was making the roux for the gravy; I don’t think I did it correctly. Either that or it is supposed to be much thicker than I realized. The second error was in trying to warm up my precooked udon noodles in a colander under hot tap water, when I should have used a pan with hot water instead. As you can see, they all broke apart. I will just have to try again, because even with all those errors, it was quite good. But a visit to Just Hungry may be in order to learn more about Japanese curries.



The next time I was able to get some cooking done was after the class was over, last Wednesday. I made the Seitan & Polenta with Fresh Greens from Vegan Express again. This time I got the bok choy, but decided to use Vegetation’s variation of seitan sausage. The sausage I used was the Field Roast Italian Sausage. They had been sitting in the freezer just waiting for it to cool down a bit (and it has finally) so that I could make this again. I think that Vegetation may have been onto something, because using sausage just seems to make this recipe better. If you know of someone who thinks that vegan food is bland, feed them this and they will change their minds.

The last three things were part of lunch today, but I made them last week. Just did not get any pictures till today.



First, my lunch today was one of the Black Bean and Potato Patty from 366 Ways to Cook Beans, Rice and Grains; my latest cookbook purchase. It is not a vegan or vegetarian cookbook, but all the recipes are by default vegetarian and most can be veganized quite easily. In this case, I substituted chickpea flour for the eggs and used panko breadcrumbs. Put some salsa on top and these are quite good, they would be good plain as well.

On the side is Cranberry Waldorf Salad. It has all the standard items in a regular Waldorf Salad; apples, celery and walnuts and adds crushed cranberries to the mix as well. If you are still looking for some salads for your Thanksgiving dinner, this would be a good one to think about, since it lets you put cranberries on the table in a way more people may find to their liking.



The last item is my desert for today; the scones from VwaV, done as the chocolate chip variation. I had to use my only and last container of MimicCreme to make them, but it was worth it. They definitely are a different texture when using crème instead of all milk. Unfortunately, since I can no longer get MimicCreme that will mean that I have to make my own with cashews or use the So Delicious Coconut Milk Cremer when making these.

100th Post

Well I made it, 100. Does that mean I am now a serious blogger?

Sorry I haven’t posted this week, but I had to clear out the refrigerator first. There was no room for any new food. So I am giving you a bonus today, both lunch and dinner.

Lunch was very simple, a peanut butter sandwich and some of the Brooklyn Deli Macaroni Salad from VCON. The peanut butter is from Smart Balance and if you haven’t tried this yet, it is really good. The macaroni salad was a bit of disappointment. It tastes fine, but my mayo set up a bit too hard once the dressing was mixed into the pasta and vegetables. I am going to have to try this again with Bryanna Grogan’s soy-free mayo and see if that makes a difference.


Dinner was my latest attempt at the fish. I had hoped to announce that it was perfected, but again the base mix is to thin, even after mixing in 1 cup oats ground to flour. However, it did thicken up significantly when I mixed a portion of it with some breadcrumbs. The taste is just fine; it just needs to be stiffer. I have some other things that I want to work on, so this is going on the back burner for a bit. But don’t worry; I will come back to it.

All of you that are gluten free, maybe you can give me some help. Will gluten free bread crumbs act as a thickener like regular bread crumbs can? If they can, then I would be more prepared to say that this is mostly perfected. If not, then back to the drawing board.

Before I go, I would like to let everyone know that I am going from a 5 day post week to maybe once or twice a week. I don’t know yet if it will be done on set days, or just when I cook something new. Right now I am leaning to just putting up a post on Fridays, covering what I ate during the week. I am changing the schedule, since I think that at this point, I have shown that one doesn’t need to eat either tofu or tempeh as a vegan. Also since I do eat so many leftovers you will be saved from all of my leftover makeovers.

Have a good weekend.

Basic Broiled Chick-fu Part II

For dinner I used chick-fu to in the Basic Broiled Tofu recipe from VCON. This time, however, I did the entire batch in the oven at once. What I didn’t eat for dinner, went into the refrigerator. I am hoping that they are as good cold (room temperature) as they are hot. If this works, it will be great for the day I again have a job to take in my lunch as an easy source of protein. However, if you decided to do this, remember that the chick-fu doesn’t need to cook as long as the recipe says. One cycle of 10 minutes and then 3 minutes is enough.

On the side is some steamed green beans and also a baked potato. The dollop on top of the potato is some Cashew Sour Cream I found up at Recipezaar. Normally I don’t like sour cream on my baked potato, I usually use plain yoghurt. However, I am needing sour cream for another recipe this week, and thought it prudent to try this before actually using it somewhere else. Even though I am not a sour cream lover, it is not that bad. Not sure if I would say it is just like regular sour cream, but the taste is similar. Should work fine in the recipe that calls for it. Unfortunately, my one hope of a commercial soy-free sour cream and cream cheese is most likely gone. The company Playfood had these products that were cashew based and apparently very good, from what I have read on the web. Recently though, their website has disappeared and I have also read that it is no longer found is the stores that used to carry the product. So they may be out of business. The creator is working on a new cookbook and a vegan restaurant in Kansas City, so she may have decided to no longer be involved. It was also caught up in her divorce, and that may have hurt the company as well.

Tamarind Lentils

Yes, I finally got to make the Tamarind Lentils from VCON. And they are so good. This is the first time I have had tamarind in anything, to my knowledge. I must admit, I really like the flavor it gives things. The sweet-sour is a nice contrast to the heat from the Seitan Vindaloo and the Gingery Carrot Salad as well. These are definitely a keeper. Now I understand why there are so many people who rave about them up at PPK. It is so different from how anything else tastes. There are really no words to describe it. Let me just say that if you can find some tamarind paste, you have to make these. And if you need something to make for someone who likes Indian food, but they not sure about things that are vegan, these will change someone’s mind.

The Gingery Carrot Salad on the side is from AllRecipes. Its good, but a bit disappointing. Maybe because of all the other strong flavors on the plate, I just didn’t taste the ginger in the carrots. It was a nice dish though to cool ones mouth after taking a bite of the Vindaloo. And it went well with the lentils. Maybe I should have cooked the carrots a bit longer so that they would be a bit softer and absorb more of the dressing. Not sure. It is, however, a nice cold side dish to have on a warmish Spring evening.

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday I had a job interview at 1:00 so had a late lunch and then a late dinner. Since I just wanted something quick, easy and filling; the Chickpea Patties made another appearance. This time as a sandwich with BBQ sauce. originally I had planed to give the potatoes on the side the “Ellie Krieger” treatment (steam, smash and bake), but they were not the correct shape for that. So I ended up making Fingerling Fries from Vegan Express. The potatoes I couldn’t fit into the pan went under the broiler. Either way still good. That is just some steamed corn on the side. A nice, simple filling dinner after a long day. In case you are wondering, I found out this morning that I didn’t get the job. Oh well, once I found out what it was, I really didn’t want it anyway. Good pay, but long hours, and long term contract with no idea of when or if I would ever become a permanent employee. So just as well.

Dinner tonight was about using up some leftovers, again. The seitan is about the last of the Macadamia-Encrusted Seitan, that has been sitting in the freezer. I just put them in the toaster oven the same time as the sweet potatoes and they were done at the same time. The sweet potatoes were done a bit differently, I dribbled on the marshmallow sauce after they were on my plate, instead of putting it under the broiler. Might keep doing it this way, since it tastes just as good and is easier to do. The broccoli were just steamed and then sprinkled with my “Parmesan Cheese” I have been using (almond flour, nutritional yeast, and mustard powder). This was also good and I will have to try this with cauliflower. Easier to make and don’t have to keep around a “cheese” sauce to put on them. Also a bit healthier, than the “cheese” sauce would be.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

*edited becuase I should have referenced Ellie Krieger instead of Rachel Ray

Chickpea Cutlets with Mole Sauce

Tonight’s dinner was an experiment. I was wondering what the Chickpea Cutlets from VCON would taste like with the mole sauce I have in the refrigerator. I am happy to report that they taste quite good. The mole sauce compliments the patties quite well. And now that I have that sauce diluted properly with vegetable stock, it no longer tries to fry my mouth. This is definitely worth some repetition and further experimentation. I wonder how it would be with spaghetti squash patties underneath? Will have to try.

Now I know that the side of mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping, may not seem like it goes with the rest of the dinner. However I still have the topping from Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I decided to use some of it up. The sweetness was rather nice, since it did help cut some of the heat from the mole.

Not a bad little meal for midweek.

Catching Up

Thank you for all your well wishes. You will all be happy to know that my fingers are much better today, with just a hint of a blister on my pinkie left. It should be gone in a day or two. And I am usually not so accident prone in the kitchen, but when I get busy and distracted, these things will happen. Vegetation, your suggestion of anesthetic crème is a good idea, but since we have limited first aide supplies, I had to settle for some aloe. Works just as good.

You will all be happy to know that I did not starve during all of this. On Friday for lunch I had some stir fried rice with some of the leftover stir fried vegetables in the refrigerator, rice and more the Sweet and Spicy Curried Miso Stir Fry Sauce. A nice simple lunch I could make easily with one hand.

For dinner I had some fried seitan with green beans and Dijon Beets. The seitan is coated in the leftover breading mix from when I made Lolo’s Fried Seitan Steaks a few weeks ago. Oh, trying to bread anything with one hand is an experience I suggest you avoid, very messy. The Dijon Beets are from the PDQ Vegetarian by Donna Klein. First thing I have made from this book and a nice way to eat beets. Basically you just heat up the canned, sliced beets and then coat in a dijon vinaigrette. Here they are warm, but you can eat them room temperature as well. And I really like this book from Donna Klein. It is based around products you can buy at the grocery store, such as pre-prepped and frozen products; so it works well for the way that I cook. Many of the dishes also seem to hold up well over a few days, so planned leftovers are an option. I believe that this is one of her first books, and like her other ones, it contains no recipes with tofu. Expect to see more from here.

Dinner tonight is Sweet and Sour Lentils, more of the Dijon Beets (room temperature this time), rice and steamed cauliflower with Citrus-Date-Sesame sauce from VCON. The recipe for the lentils is from vegweb.com. Not quite sweet and sour enough for my taste, but is nice in that it doesn’t make a lot. I have another recipe from Recipezaar, but it makes a ton, since you start with ½ lb lentils. Both are good though. The Dijon Beets were quite good from the refrigerator, so when I do finally get a job, they will be a nice addition to my lunch boxes.

All for today, see you tomorrow.

Meatless Loaf and Pound Cake

First, I finally made the Mini Meatless Loaves from River over at Wing it Vegan. But it almost didn’t happen, because I realized that I had no tomato sauce in the house, right when starting the recipe. However, I did have plenty of tomato paste and half remembered something about using tomato paste thinned with water to make a quick replacement for tomato sauce. So that problem got solved rather easily. The ground seitan worked great as a replacement for the veggie crumbles and I even added some green pepper, just for some extra flavor. Since I had no way of making more of my emergency “tomato sauce” for the topping, I decided to just cook it all up in one loaf and cover the loaf with catsup. Mine doesn’t look as nice as what River or Becks made, but it tasted really quite good. This will make a nice sandwich for lunch tomorrow.

And speaking of lunch, I did remember to take a photo of the wraps today. I kind of borrowed the idea from Isa’s recipe for the Cornmeal Chili Tofu Sandwiches from VCON, by using shredded cabbage as the base for the baked chick-fu. The chick-fu wedges aren’t whole, like in Isa’s recipe, because in this case it seems to be easier to eat if they are in pieces. However, I might have to try just using the wedges as some point, because then the wraps might be easier to roll-up.

I also tried to make the Vanilla Yoghurt Pound Cake from VCON today. It was a partial success. Per advice I got over at PPK forums, it seemed that the best way to replace the pureed tofu was with more yoghurt. Mandy suggested using ½ a cup of yoghurt to directly replace the tofu, but I decided to only use ¾ of a cup total of yoghurt. The batter seemed to be correct and it looked great out of the oven, however as the cake cooled it collapsed in the middle. I cooked it for 58 minutes and the knife did come out clean when inserted, so am not sure if this is a structural problem or if I just didn’t bake it long enough. The ends of the cake came out of the loaf pan rather cleanly, so it doesn’t seem that the cake was under baked. The pound cake is also quite moist. Apparently, this recipe was originally all yoghurt, but was changed to add some tofu. Now I wonder if the tofu helps add some structure. If so, then maybe another egg replacer would be better to use. It does taste quite good, however. And I was able to salvage at least 2/3 of the loaf, so it wasn’t a total loss.

Tomorrow looks like leftovers again, as usual. So I will see you all on Monday.

Cornmeal Chili Burmese Tofu

After the debacle of last night, I am so happy that my experiment worked. The experiment was to make the Cornmeal Chili Tofu with the Burmese Tofu. The chick-fu cooked up nicely in the oven and did not have an “eggy” taste when eating them. The spices on the coating were what I tasted, not the chick-fu underneath. But the next time I do this, I will make less of the batter and maybe use less spices. Even with using chipotle chili powder and ancho chili powder in place of the regular chili powder and cayenne, it was still quite spicy. Even the Lime Crema (or lemon in this case, since I had no lime juice) from the Baja Tempeh Tacos didn’t really cool them down. Now I want to try them in a wrap or something to see how they taste cold. But that is for tomorrow.

On the side is the last of the Broccoli Polenta and some steamed cauliflower. And I finally found a better way to eat cauliflower then using cheese sauce. Here I am using the Citrus-Date-Sesame sauce from VCON and have found that it makes the cauliflower taste quite good. the richness and sweetness in the sauce adds some flavor to a somewhat bland vegetable.

List of substitutions I am doing it this way, since I have so many today

Cornmeal Chili Tofu

Tofu: replace with Burmese Tofu
Cayenne powder: replaced with ancho chili powder

Lime Crema

Soy yoghurt: replaced with Soy Delicious Coconut Milk Yoghurt plain
Grapeseed or avocado oil: replaced with canola
Lime zest: had to leave out since didn’t have any
Lime juice: used lemon since that was all I had

All for today. See you tomorrow.

Friday Leftovers

End of another week, and as usual for me, all leftovers for dinner. The kale is from the bunch that was used for last night’s dinner. Simply wilted in a pan and then some of the Citrus-Date-Sesame sauce over it, out of squeeze bottle. I am recycling my agave nectar bottles for sauces. The Broccoli Polenta was done under the broiler this time, since no pan was available. Happy to report it works just as well under the broiler as browning it in a pan. And yes, I am still eating on the Samosa Potatoes. However, they should be done by next week. Which means that I can make more food.

All for this week. Have a good weekend.

Broccoli Polenta

Back to VCON tonight with dinner.

The only reason I have put off trying the Broccoli Polenta (VCON, pg 114) was that I didn’t want a bag of polenta to stay around the kitchen forever. And since I am the only one in the house who will eat polenta, it will be here a long time. I also was not sure about the combination of polenta and broccoli. However, my mind has been changed. I could not belive how good this was for the simplicity of the ingredients. And it also fits very well into the “planned leftover” idea, since I only need to pan fry what I want to eat at any one time. This might even be good to take in a lunch box, if it is fried up the night before and then reheated in a microwave. However, the next time this is made, I think it will be molded in a loaf pan instead of any of the options that Isa gives you in the recipe. That will make it a bit easier to get uniform slices.

Basic Broiled Chick-fu

Back to the chick-fu experiment tonight. Since the previous experiment with marinating and baking was a crash and burn, I was in hope that this recipe (Basic Broiled Tofu, VCON pg 126) might work better. And to my great surprise it was a success. Even though the chick-fu did get a bit overdone, this does seem to be one recipe that works for both tofu and the chick-fu. It must be due to the broiling, but the chick-fu did not really develop that eggy taste it can when pan frying it. Also, the soy sauce and lemon juice from the braising sauce works well with the chick-fu; since you do get that salty, tart taste on your tongue when eating the triangles. Guess this means I am going to have to make the Dill-Tahini sauce and try the Greek Tofu Benedict sometime. And also make some extra to see how they are in a pita sandwich. The Tofu Florentine is also on the menu now as well.

Now I will have to wonder how the chick-fu will taste with the cornmeal and chili treatment (Chili Cornmeal-Crusted Tofu, VCON pg 125).

Indian Night Dinner

Didn’t plan on this being an Indian night dinner, but was in the middle of making Mediterranean “Meat” Loaf and found I had no canned chickpeas. I had everything for all of this, so did a quick change of plans.

Under the naan (more in a minute about that) I have my take on the Somosa Stuffed Potatoes from VCON. Since I couldn’t plan ahead on this, the recipe had some heavy alterations. The biggest was that when it says to add the onions and carrots, I also added the potatoes (bought pre chopped), garlic, ginger, and the spices. If I could have planned ahead, the potatoes would have been pre-cooked and added as the recipe says. Once the potatoes were done, then I added green beans (in place of the peas) and once they were warm, the lemon juice. However, they did not go back into potato shells and into the oven. That part of the recipe really doesn’t work for me, since I would be the only eating them and have no freezer space. This way I can keep them in the refrigerator and just reheat as needed.

The naan was something I found that wasn’t vegan, but only had to replace the yoghurt to turn it into a vegan bread. And just to answer any questions anyone has had, the coconut milk yoghurt can be used just like regular yoghurt. That is what I used in these, and they have no carry over coconut flavor in the final product. They went together really easily also. However, instead of rolling the dough out and cutting it, I just cut the dough into four pieces and hand stretched them on the cutting board, with a bit of flour to stop them from sticking. Then each one just went into a hot fry pan and you see the final result. These just might become a staple for me, since I cannot buy vegan naan around here.

The cauliflower were easy. This is the second way that I will eat it willingly. In fact, I may like it curried more than with cheese. The cauliflower were just cut in to flowerets, steamed in the pan with some water. Once they were done, the water was drained and they were put on the plate for a bit. Some Smart Balance and curry were put in the pan, and once the curry powder was cooked enough to get rid of any grittiness, then the cauliflower were put back in the pan and stirred till evenly coated.

All in all this was a good dinner. The other dishes were a great complement to the Black Eyed Peas & Brown Lentil Pineapple Curry. I should have done this the first time around.

I will do the Mediterranean “Meat” Loaf tomorrow, after getting some chickpeas. You guys will love it. Think a “meatloaf” with eggplant, chickpeas and other seasonings.

New Year’s Day Food and Dinner Tonight

Hope you all had a happy New Year’s Day. TeddyBear and I just basically did nothing on the 1st but watch some football or play on our computers. I had food for noshing, since neither of us wanted to make any formal meals. Unfortunately, neither he nor I felt very well on Tuesday or Wednesday, so we didn’t stay up and toast the new year. First time in a long while I haven’t done that. However, I did do the cherry juice and Asti Spumati for breakfast and it was really good. Nice to have something different. I also had the Coconut Pie Pancakes from La Dolce Vegan and if you are into coconut, you have to try them. For the day we had some bread and topping for bruschetta, crackers (Back to Nature Classic Rounds) and some Gee Whiz Spread, Oreos, and some strawberry ice cream for the TeddyBear. Neither one of us ate much, but we were really not hungry either. One day a year won’t kill us.

For dinner tonight I had something that was intended for New Year’s, but we never got around to them. “Rib” patties for Vegan McRibs. I must confess the McRib is one of my pregan weaknesses. I used to work at McDonald’s as well and can still tell you how they are made. For the patty I used this recipe from Celine at Have Cake, Will Travel; but instead of making them into “ribs”, they were made into long patties for a submarine bun. The BBQ sauce is a new recipe, it is from here (minus the hot sauce and liquid smoke). It has a really good flavor, is easy to make and also doesn’t make a lot; winner on all three accounts. For the sides there are steamed corn and Cheater Baked Beans from VCON. If you haven’t tried them yet, you really should. They taste as good as any baked beans one may buy in a can and at least you are sure they are vegan. Since I didn’t have a light molasses (blackstrap molasses is all I keep around), I mixed equal parts of blackstrap molasses and dark agave for the light molasses in the recipe. It seems to work just fine.

That is all for this week. See you on Monday.

Christmas Leftovers

The TeddyBear and I had a wonderful Christmas and hopefully all of you did as well. He had a great two weeks off work, but I am so happy to not be cooking for him on a regular basis. It wouldn’t be so bad if was willing to try more things and wasn’t so picky about what he will eat. But enough of that and onto dinner tonight.

The theme tonight is leftovers, again. I did the fried stuffing patty topped by a Chickpea Cutlet (VCON) and some leftover gravy (Road's End Golden Gravy from the packet). The last of the mashed potatoes was also turned into a fried patty, just to make it easy to eat. On the side are the last of the Harvard Beets and some steamed green beans. Just a simple little dinner, but very filling.

And I have a suggestion for those of you that like the Chickpea Cutlets. I think I have found the way to pan fry them and still get them to have a crispy coating and also get done in the middle. First you have to make sure the cutlets are evenly flattened and the best way to do that is to roll them out with a small narrow glass or a very small rolling pin. This will ensure that each cutlet has a similar thickness from top to bottom and side to side. It will also mean that the top and bottom will be smooth and no indentions will be left from your fingertips. Then when you fry them, do it on a lower heat than you might think is needed. On my stove I use setting 3, which is basically medium-low heat. And when you put the cutlet in the skillet, the skillet needs to have a bit of oil in the bottom and the cutlet needs to be pressed against the pan. This will allow them to be heated evenly from the pan surface. Then you just let each one sit, till they seem crispy on the bottom, from 5-10 minutes, then you turn them over, press them against the pan and let them sit again, till they seem done. This is what I have been doing lately and they almost look like Isa’s picture in the book. If this doesn’t make sense, let me know and I will take pictures the next time.

That is all for tonight. As for this week, it looks like will be posting tomorrow and on Friday, but not on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day.

Black Bean Burgers

Tonight’s omni friendly dinner is courtesy of VCON, the Black Bean Burgers on page 98. I figured that you can’t go wrong with a veggie burger made of beans. And I was right. They got a very acceptable, which is about as good a review as my TeddyBear gives for anything. I only made a few minor changes to the recipe. Used smoked paprika for the chili powder and since I was out of onion, just used ½ teaspoon of onion powder. Don’t think that affected the taste. Now you will notice that we don’t use hamburger buns. We just have no space to keep them in the apartment and don’t use them very much, so we don’t buy them. The TeddyBear likes using bread anyway. I wanted to make mine easier to eat with one hand (since I eat with my plate in one hand and the computer on my lap in slate mode), so I cut my patty in half and just put each half on a slice of bread with some BBQ sauce. It worked out really well, and will have to remember that for the future. However, I don’t understand how Isa says that you get 6 1½ inch patties out of the recipe. I could only get four, but they don’t seem to thick and did get done as they should be. I think the next time I will actually measure out 2 cups of black beans instead of just using a 15 oz. can of them, the measurement may not have been right.

On the side we had steamed baby carrots and broccoli kinpira from Just Bento. It isn’t really how she does it, since I cheated and used broccoli slaw mix and then just cooked that up with the soy sauce, sesame oil, hot pepper flakes and sesame seeds. If you know of someone who doesn’t like broccoli, suggest they try it this way. It really doesn’t taste anything like you would expect broccoli to taste like. And if you have never checked out either Just Bento or its companion blog Just Hungry and are interested in Japanese or fusion cooking, please go take a look. Not everything is vegan, but Maki does have some interesting items and on some things she will tell you have to make a dish vegan. She is also doing a bento lunch challenge to loose weight in January on Just Bento, so if you are interested in bento lunches and also want to loose some weight, see if you can still get involved.

The tutorials for both versions of the Burmese Tofu are up and links from the sidebar to them. I also put in a link to all the associated pictures in my Flickr account. Hope they help you if you have any problems.

P.S. Sorry the picture is blurry. I must have jiggled the camera and didn't realize it.

Curry Marinated Chick-Fu

The great experiment worked, kind of. The good news is that it didn’t fall apart and dissolve in the marinade (the Curried Tofu marinade from VCON). The bad news is that it wasn’t absorbed by the chick-fu and just kind of sat on top. It baked up alright, but really didn’t taste very good, because all you got was the concentrated spices in the marinade. I guess this means that if we want to season our chick-fu then we need to make a batter of some type, season the batter, coat the chick-fu and then fry it or bake it. The side dish was actually much better. It is the last of the Cinnamon-Spiced Baked Vegetables from La Dolce Vegan that was steamed with the Spiced Lentils & Rice. Not bad actually. If I had more the baked vegetables, it could have been a meal of its own.

And now for some housecleaning. No anole sightings today. Don’t know if he is still here, but I am going to catch him if he is. Vegetation, anoles are related to the skinks you have in Australia. I guess you could call them cousins, but these are from the Bahamas. If anyone is looking for a fairly easy, mostly foolproof recipe for seitan that doesn’t make a lot, will have a recipe up for you in the next few days. I have all the pictures needed to make the tutorial about how to make the Burmese Tofu, both the rice and chickpea/yellow split pea flour versions. That will be up in the next week as well. The TeddyBear is off work the next two weeks, so my postings will be around the theme of “What do you feed an omni?” and I may not be posting everyday, due to us eating a lot of leftovers. I also do not plan on posting for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or New Year’s Eve or Day either. Since these holidays are late in the week this year, I may also not post on the following Friday as well. It will depend on what we ate.

That is all for now and have a good weekend.

Product Review and more Burmese Tofu

Okay, guys. Today you get a bonus. Both lunch and dinner, along with a bit of excitement in the Republic of Bunny today.

First the product review. I had a Sunshine Burger for lunch with the Mustard Sauce from VCON and some celery with peanut butter. Now in case you have yet to hear about the Sunshine Burger products, let me tell you they are just what you are needing to find. The entire line is vegan, organic, soy free and gluten free. Yes, you did read all that correctly. I know, sounds impossible. The company that makes these uses sunflower seeds as their base instead of either TVP or gluten. The variety I’m eating is the Garden Herb, but they also have 3 other varieties as well. If the other three are as good as this one, they are worth it. The patty was well seasoned and really didn’t need anything else on the bread. I just used the Mustard Sauce to add a different flavor profile. However, one could also use a curry ketchup, mustard or a curry mayonnaise as well. Please, do not use BBQ sauce. It really doesn’t work with the seasonings. The celery with peanut butter was really just to round out the plate, because you would not believe how nutritious these patties are. The only bad thing is that they only come three to a box. Now if they don’t sell these in your neck of the woods and you want to try them, Sneaky posted a clone of the Original variety up at PPK forums. So if you can’t buy them, you can make them.

This is what I had for desert today. I only usually have desert with lunch, not dinner. This is the Amazing Hupia (Coconut) Pudding with some thawed strawberries and some walnuts. Since this didn’t get made last week, it got bumped to this week. If you like coconut, this is for you. The recipe is only coconut milk, water and cornstarch. However, if you are trying to watch your weight, then you might want to skip this. Not low in calorie. As for the walnuts, I try to have some everyday. They provide some extra calories, have good fats, and also are a great source for Omega-3s. Besides, I like them.

Dinner again was the last of my previous batch of chick-fu. Again it is coated with the batter I am trying to use up (almost done). The stuffing patties are the last of the leftover stuffing from Thanksgiving. So one more item cleared out of the refrigerator. This was really just to clear up some odds and ends in the refrigerator and make room for next weeks food. And I am so happy to finally be out of that stuffing. Now the question is, do we have more for Christmas, in which case you will see this again till next year. Considering how well the bread in the stuffing mix is seasoned however, I may buy it again and only make a small amount. The rest would be great to use in making a batter for the chick-fu for baking or frying. All I would need to do is run it through my Magic Bullet.

I am making more the chick-fu tonight, so hopefully the tutorial will be up in the next week or two. And tomorrow will be the big experiment, marinating the chick-fu and then baking it. I figured that if it should fail, I would have a great batter for making Socca or maybe use it to make an omelet.

Now for the excitement today. As I was walking in to my kitchen, this morning I went Eek!!!. What was on the wall. Why an anole. How it got in our apartment and then into the kitchen, we will never know. It took me half the day, but he is finally out of the kitchen, but still in the apartment, as far as I know. That picture you see was taken about 11:00 this morning, long after we woke up. Now does anyone know how to catch one of these creatures. And I do mean catch and release. Personally, I think that they are cute little creatures. But not in my kitchen!!!! (was I shouting there) My fear is that he will die in the apartment or that we will accidentally step on him, since he seems to be able to blend into his environment. Any help is appreciated.