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.

Asian Inspired Dinner

Tonight’s dinner, if not truly Asian; definitely had all the flavors one would expect in an Asian meal. And that was with me forgetting part of the ingredients for one of the dishes.

The rice dish you see is the Bok Choy, Edamame (Green Beans), Cashew and Orange Rice from Vegan Express by Nava Atlas. This was the highlight of the meal even though I forgot to put in the orange (from a can, since I couldn’t find any Clementines at the store) and the cashews. With the oranges and cashews balancing out the teriyaki sauce and sesame oil, it would have been even better. However, it does have Bok Choy; so at least I got some leafy green vegetables with dinner.

Next to that is Mock BBQ Pork (page down till you see the recipes), which is a recipe for seitan I found over at the Vegetarian Resource Group. This is a bit different way of making gluten, because you start with plain gluten that you flavor after poaching the gluten log. After the marinating the gluten pieces, you then bake them and at that point they are ready to use. Like I said, a bit different. And I would not make these again, unless they were going into a stir fry. That seems to be the best way to eat them.

The last item I had for dinner is some broccoli. I had been planning on doing the Spicy Sesame Broccoli, also from Vegan Express, but I don’t have any more containers for the refrigerator. Since I need to use these up, I just decided to put some broccoli in the oven, to heat up with the Mock BBQ Pork and then topped them with some Gomasio, from the refrigerator. For those of you not familiar with Gomasio, it is a condiment from Japan usually used on rice in bento boxes and is salt covered sesame seeds. I used it to add some extra flavor and nutrition to the broccoli.

So that was dinner. One hit, one miss and on filler. All in all not bad

Thai Tossed Salad

I have been looking for different salads in all of my books and this has been one that sounded interesting, to say the least. Since I have never been to a Thai restaurant, I can’t say if this is authentic or close to what they serve; but it does have the flavors of Thailand.

This is another recipe from Vegan Express, actually two recipes; since the dressing is also from the book. The salad is really easy; just some broccoli, red bell pepper, cucumber and roma tomato. The recipe also calls for sliced mushrooms and some sprouts, but because I’m not fond of either of those, I just left them out. It is also supposed to have some pineapple as well, but for some reason I totally forgot to put that in until after I ate. The pineapple, though, would have added a definite sweetness that would have been quite nice.

And the recipe is quite easy. Just prep the veggies, toss together, place on top of lettuce and pour on the dressing. The dressing is the Coconut Peanut Sauce or Dressing, from the same book. And that is easy also. It just has jarred Satay Sauce, agave nectar, coconut milk, and some curry paste. It is quite easy to put together and tastes quite good. And it doesn’t thicken in the refrigerator. Wonder how it would work as a dressing on a rice or pasta salad?

And just to round out the meal, I had some Burmese Tofu that was simply baked in the toaster oven. It was very good with the Coconut Peanut Sauce or Dressing on it.

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

Seitan and Polenta Skillet with Kale

This dish is an adaption of the Seitan and Polenta Skillet with Fresh Greens in Vegan Express by Nava Atlas. For some reason, I thought the dish had kale, not Bok Choy and spinach. Since I didn’t realize this until after all the shopping was done, I decided to make the recipe with kale instead; figuring that the kale would be an acceptable substitution.

And boy is this really good. it has all these flavors and textures going at one time. The balsamic vinegar adds a nice touch of sweetness to the richness of the seitan and the kale. The polenta is crispy on the outside and soft inside, which is a nice contrast to the chewy seitan and somewhat still crisp kale leaves. And this is all with simple and basic ingredients and technique. This is a dish I could easily slip into making once a week, if I wasn’t careful.

If Vegan Express is not in your cookbook set and you need recipes that are easy and fast. This is the book for you. All of the recipes in the book are able to be made in anywhere from 15-45 minutes maximum. She also has some unrecipes for vegetables that make simple side dishes to help complete a meal, make a sandwich or a salad. Many of the dishes come with suggestions for how to turn the dish into a full meal for a family. She even has deserts. Since the book is now available as an eBook, you don’t even have to wait for the shipping. Both Mobipocket.com and Ereader.com have it for about 20 bucks. You can have it 5 minutes after ordering. Now if I could just get a nice slate touch screen computer to be attached to the refrigerator.

Beck’s BBQ Pulled Pork Seitan

First, sorry for no post yesterday. I ended up not cooking dinner since was dealing with some nausea issues. It happens to me from time to time and is worse in the afternoon and evening. The only way to deal with it is to lay down, so that is what I did most of last evening. It is either due to hormones or allergies, but I haven’t figured out what has caused this current bout. It comes and goes, so hopefully it will leave soon.

And on to dinner tonight. We had what was planned for last night, Beck’s BBQ Pulled Pork Seitan. And Becks you have nothing to worry about. It received a “most acceptable” from the TeddyBear, which is about as good as it gets from him. Or to put it another way “He likes it!” I did, however, find that the BBQ sauce got rather thick from sitting in the refrigerator, since I made it early. It had to get hot to properly coat the torn seitan pieces, but after it was, the seitan was easily coated. The seitan was a bit hard to tear (shred), but that was because it had sat in the refrigerator for a day. If you make this in one day, like Becks did, then it will go together easier. Oh, and Becks, I had no problem with the sauce getting thick. It actually got very syrupy while I was cooking it down. However, that could have been because I used orange juice, since that was the only juice easily found. I used the potato rolls from Wal-Mart for my sandwiches (which are still vegan), but the TeddyBear used regular sliced bread. For side dishes we had vegetarian (which are vegan) baked beans from Bush’s Baked Beans and Fingerling Fries from “Vegan Express” by Nava Atlas.

The Fingerling Fries are kind of interesting and really easy. All they are is fingerling potatoes cut in half and then fried in a pan and sprinkled with smoked paprika. The book they are from “Vegan Express” is basically vegan dishes that can be turned into a meal in 30-45 minutes. She has meal plans, interesting tidbits of information and a some no recipe required things. If you are looking for a cookbook of quick and easy to prepare vegan dishes, this is for you. And since it is available as an eBook, you can get it right way, even if you can’t find it locally.

That is all for this week. I am still working on the list of soy protein free vegan products and also a seitan recipe for you. Unfortunately, my tendonitis has also flared up, so that is slowing me down. It looks like next week will be mostly leftovers, so I may hold off till then. Other than these, I may not post at all next week. Have a good weekend.