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. 

Merry Christmas

I hope you have all been doing well. Sorry to be away for so long, but right after I got back from Disney I came down with my death of a cold. The Teddybear was off all last week and I was so sick that not only did I not really cook, but I didn’t really eat either. In fact, today is the best I have felt in almost two weeks. Good thing, since I start a new job in January. I’ll be running a tax office for Amscot during the tax season. It’s only for a few months, but much better than nothing. And it might help me get another position down the line. I plan on blogging about what I’m taking for lunch and showing you all my various lunch boxes.




I’ve done some cooking this week. This soup is something I made off the top of my head to give me something simple and nutritious for lunch. It is just some vegetable stock (from the carton), chopped kale, carrots and celery. I cooked them for about 30 minutes, till the kale was soft. I then took it off the heat, added a heaping teaspoonful of chickpea miso and stirred that through. Then I added the last of my udon noodles from the refrigerator by dumping them in the hot soup and letting it sit on the counter for 15 minutes. That was enough to warm them up and let them separate in the broth. Quite good and filling. Not bad, considering that I prefer recipes to free willing my cooking.


I also did my only bit of Christmas cooking today, by making a batch of Hannah Kaminsky‘s Five Minute Fudge that I found over at GoDairyFree.com. Using a tip found up at PPK, I used So Delicious coconut milk creamer (plain) to make it. It is quite good and fudge like, much to my somewhat surprise. While the ½ cup of coconut milk (or cream) may not seem enough, the recipe does work. And it looks quite chocolaty, considering that I had to use regular cocoa since I couldn’t find any Dutch processed cocoa.

My guy has to work tomorrow (ugh) so I made up another batch of the Holiday Nog and plan on just snacking and listening to holiday music till we have dinner fairly late. At least he is supposed to be off at 5:00, so we can at least plan on having dinner. It will be just about the same as what we had on Thanksgiving, except I have a new cranberry sauce to try and no sweet potatoes (because I can’t find any in the store).

I do plan on telling you about Disney, but that will have to wait till this weekend at the earliest. Till then, I hope you all have a healthy and safe Christmas.

Chickpea Scramble, Take Two

I hope all of you in the US are enjoying this Thanksgiving eve. Hopefully, your weather is better than ours in Florida is at the moment. Fall has definitely arrived here, but that has brought us rain off and on all day today. It may clear up tomorrow, but we have a front in the area, so who knows. It has cooled down, no more highs in the 80s, but the humidity is still here. Once that goes away, the weather will be great. But I really shouldn’t complain about the rain. We need a winter with high rainfall and a normal rainy season next year to have our drought declared over.

I am not doing a lot of cooking for Thanksgiving, don’t really need to with just the two of us. I will be heating up the Celebration Roast and potato rolls (from Wal-Mart) tomorrow, make the mashed potatoes and gravy, roast a sweet potato for me and steam some corn. Neither one of us is into really big meals, so that will be enough. And I will most likely have some Celebration Roast leftover to make some sandwiches on Friday and even possibly into Saturday. This is fine; since I will be the only one eating any leftovers (my other half doesn’t like to eat them).



However, I have done some cooking. In fact, I made the Chickpea Scramble again, but this time tried to give it more of an Asian flavor. I added baby bok choy and cooked the bok choy and red bell pepper in vegan oyster sauce before adding the chickpeas, rice, corn, green beans and shredded carrots. It worked out really well; the vegan oyster sauce definably changed the flavor profile of the dish. The next time I do this Asian variation however, I am going to use more Asian vegetables, such as baby corn and water chestnuts. In fact, I am also looking at doing a Mediterranean variation and a Latin America variation (with black beans) as well. This recipe just has so many possibilities.

All for today, and I will come back on Friday to show you my Thanksgiving dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving

Vegan Mofo Survey

I really had no time to do any cooking today.  So I thougth this might be the time to roll out this survey that has been passed around.


1. Favorite non-dairy milk?

Rice is my everyday milk, but I will also drink almond and homemade cashew milk also.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?

just check out my Monday posts

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?

don’t really eat popcorn, but nutritional yeast sounds good

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?

my first attempt at making peanut tofu, I think the peanut milk was overheated and the curds were so small they went through the cloth lining the mold

5. Favorite pickled item?

my grandmother’s homemade sweet pickles that my dad used to make, otherwise bread & butter pickles from the store

6. How do you organize your recipes?

I use Living Cookbook, but I also have some in OneNote and others saved as files on my system, they will all get into one place someday

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?

trash and garbage disposal

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods...what would they be (don't worry about how you'll cook them)?

chocolate, peanut butter, coconut (I know, it should be there already)

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?

My mother’s cinnamon rolls made with a potato roll recipe she got from the local agriculture office. She would cover them in chocolate pudding and coconut for me.

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?

Coconut Bliss and Purely Decadent with coconut milk are a tie

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?

My new blender. I can actually do things with it now.

12. Spice/herb you would die without?

Curry (does that count)

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?

My very first cookbook was one put out by Betty Crocker for kids, but I also have the Little House Cookbook as well. The first one I bought for myself was Laurel’s Kitchen Recipes.

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?

pink grapefruit marmalade, Stonewall Kitchen makes a really good one

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?

my finace loves Sloppy Sams (a sloppy joe variantion made with lentils)

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?

well I can’t eat tofu or tempeh, so it would have to be seitan

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?

doesn’t matter, I eat to live and don’t really live to eat

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?

storage containers, cornstarch, baking powder

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.

a bag of ground flax seeds, nutritional yeast, hamburger buns

20. What's on your grocery list?

changes from week to week, but always veggies, bread, walnuts (I eat about a pound a week)

21. Favorite grocery store?

My main shopping is at Publix (they are close enough to walk) but I also go to Nature’s Food Patch in Clearwater, Nature’s Finest in Gulfport (St. Petersburg) and Rollin Oats in St. Petersburg

22. Name a recipe you'd love to veganize, but haven't yet.

not sure yet

23. Food blog you read the most. Or maybe the top 3?

Oh, boy. I read a ton. More than is in my blogroll. However, those are my basics. I must have about 50 in my RSS folder.

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?

rice milk chocolate bars

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?

the three pounds of raw peanuts to make peanut tofu, and I also plan on buying some coconut butter to help me use up all that peanut pulp

26. Ingredients you are scared to work with?

I really haven’t found anything yet I can’t deal with. But then I am not that adventurous.

Final Week of Vegan Mofo

I’m not going to do a menu this week, since I plan on only making two new things. The Black Beans and Potato Cakes (which may or may not get made again due to refrigerator space) I had planned on making last week and I also plan on making the Curried Udon Noodle Stir Fry from Vcon. However, this week will see my main meal being eaten at lunch not dinner, because my tax class starts today. That schedule is four nights this week, four nights next week and two nights the week after. Needless to say it will mess up my evenings because it runs from 6-9 pm. It also means eating lunch and dinner earlier than normal, since I will be leaving for the class about the time I usually eat dinner.

I also did a lot of research this weekend to find some ways to use all the peanut pulp I will soon have on hand. I found an interesting cookie recipe up at The Sunny Raw Kitchen that looks promising. It doesn’t use a dehydrator and I would think it would work as well with peanut flour (or nut pulp) as it does with cashew. Now anything I make will only quasi-raw, just to let you know, since I don’t buy the virgin coconut oil nor raw agave. And in this recipe, I am tempted to use regular chocolate chips, instead of making the raw ones suggested. I also found a recipe for Raw Reese’s Cups that looks promising as well. Unfortunately, this weeks schedule is going to force me to wait until Friday for more peanut tofu experiments. But that gives me time over the weekend to make some raw treats.

Peanut Tofu: Not Good Beginnings

I am not going to talk about my dinner tonight, since all I had was a smoothie (peanut milk, peanut pulp, banana, frozen cherries, agave nectar and chocolate powder), walnuts and my daily brownie. For some reason I am just not hungry and I have learned that when I don’t feel hungry I shouldn’t eat because it can really upset my stomach. But I do have a few things to talk about tonight.

The first is my new Oster blender. So far I have used it today to make the peanut milk for my peanut tofu attempt and the smoothie I had for dinner. This blender is far superior to the Magic Bullet, due to its size and power. The smoothie came together quite easily and I didn’t have to worry that if it ran to long the lid would stick. The peanut milk was also a cinch to make. And I am going to have to check how much milk I am getting from each cup of soaked peanuts, because I think it is more than one quart; which is what I expected to get. The nut pulp I am getting as leftovers is so fine it is like nut flour. I may have to try and make raw peanut butter cookies out of it. So am I happy that we spent the money on it, not really; however now I don’t understand why I didn’t do this sooner.

I also made an attempt at the peanut tofu this morning. Unfortunately, the attempt was a failure. I made the peanut milk, added the nigari and let it sit. Curds and whey did form, but when I poured it into the mold, it went right through the cloth that came with my kit to line the mold. Apparently the curds were too small. I went back to Pangea and looked at the ingredients again and noticed that they actually use two coagulants in make the Nufu Tofu, nigari and calcium sulphate. Not sure as to why they do this, but it appears this will not be as simple as we all hoped. However, I would think that we can duplicate the process or figure out another one that works also. I’ve sent an email asking for help to Brenda Wiley (she provided the tofu directions as Bryanna Grogan’s site) and am waiting for a reply. Hopefully she can come up with an idea or may even figure it out and let me know how to do this.

Menu for the Week of Oct. 11

I think this will be the workaround (print screen, Microsoft Paint, save as jpeg file, upload) for putting my weekly menu online and not having to retype it. Actually I just wanted to show off my computer. As you can see above, I write my menu in OneNote. How do I do that you ask? Simple, I have a convertible laptop/slate that spends most of its time in slate mode. Much better to use when you have chronic tendonitis in my hands, as I do. Now I do type some things, such as this blog post, but my typing is limited. I hope to do more with dictation, but that is currently waiting for Windows 7.

I moved the Summer Vegetable Sauce and Vegan Mozzarella Cheese to this week, since I was unable to make them last week. I also have some scrambles I am making as well. The Chickpea Scramble is something I have wanted to try and I am taking a different take on Isa's Puttanesca Scramble from Vegan Lunch. I am making the Sweet Potato Hash from VwaV simply because it will work well with most of the main dishes for this week and the sweet potatoes in the market are decent again.

Menu for Week of October 4

As promised on Friday, here is what I plan on cooking for the week. Some of it is from the past week, that I have yet to finish; but mostly it is new dishes. I had hoped that I could just import this from OneNote and then paste it up on the blog, but Blogger doesn’t work that way; apparently. So I am going to have to type it in below.

Before I give you my weekly menu, however, I want to tell you how it comes about. Usually on Wednesday I start to search through both my paper cookbooks, ebook cookbooks and my electronic Living Cookbook for recipes to make for the next week. I am basically looking for recipes that will work well together and will last well throughout the week. Some weeks I also look for specific ingredients, such as eggplant or kale. I try to get a good mix of vegetables over the course of a month. If anything, my diet is deficit in green leafy vegetables, and I haven’t quite found the way to remedy that situation, since I don’t eat a lot of salads. I guess I need to find more recipes that use them as a component.

Rotelle with Mixed Summer Vegetable Sauce TMV pg. 119 (however, I forgot to get the pasta at the store, so will have to use some orzo I cooked up this past week, may not make till weekend, have no more containers for the refrigerator)

Get Your Groove on Veggie Burgers (in the freezer, from Vegweb.com)

Mock BBQ Pork (from vrg.org)

Bok Choy, Edamame, Cashew and Orange Rice Vegan Express (using green beans in place of the edamame)

Spicy Sesame Broccoli Vegan Express (not making this week, have no more containers for the refrigerator)

Simple Vegetable Orzo (leftover)

Curried Orzo Salad (leftover, from PDQ Vegetarian)

I also have a few other things that will round out what I eat for the week, such as walnuts, brownies, fruit, rice and some sauces.

Vegan Mofo Day 1

It’s that time of year again. Time for a month of showing how great and varied vegan food can be.

Last year I just missed this and only read the blogs. This year, will be my first to participate and I am looking forward to showing people that great vegan food doesn’t have to have tofu or tempeh in it. Since I am soy intolerant most of what you see will be either seitan based or bean/lentil based. But that doesn’t mean that I am greatly limited. Sure there are some things I really can’t do, like “vegan fish”, but there are other dishes I can make. I even managed to find a cookbook lately that only had grain and bean recipes in it. Some of those will appear this month and in the future here.

I also plan to do some experiments with my new great find, peanut tofu. I know, doesn’t sound quite right. However, there is a commercial version and I would really like to make it at home, since it would give me a lot more options in dishes. I am buying my first batch of raw peanuts tomorrow and will have a tofu kit in the next week. Hopefully I can make it work.
There will be some things with the Burmese Tofu as well. It is such a simple dish and great for a quick dinner, so I don’t want to forget about it either.

I want to warn you that I eat a lot of leftovers, since I more or less cook for myself. Over the years I have figured out how to re package them, so I hopefully won’t bore you too much with them.

On Mondays I am hoping that I can show you the food plan for the week. The way I do it is in OneNote. I look at what is left over from the week before and also what is in the freezer. From there I look through all my recipes and figure out what to eat for the next week.
The last week of this will probably be devoted to quick and easy dinners; since that is the week I start an income tax preparation course. The class starts at 6, which means I have to eat a bit earlier than normal. And if I have picked up a short contract assignment by then, it will mean a real quick dinner on the fly. However, the class is very near a Chipotles, so I might just go there one night for dinner; especially if I am working.

So hope you enjoy what you see. If you have not been here before feel free to look around. I have some tutorials on Burmese Tofu and a list of soy protein free products that are vegan (to bad it isn’t longer). If you know of any product I may have missed, let me know and I’ll add it to the list.

All for now. See you tomorrow.

Still Eating Leftovers

I’m still eating leftovers, so no food today. However, there is some housecleaning (as people would say) to do, so let me get on with that.

First, I received quite a surprise on my shopping trip earlier this week. Not only did I find the new So Delicious Coffee Creamer (website not yet updated to show product), but right next to it was sitting MimicCreme in the 16 oz size they have for coffee creamer use. After having it in my coffee for the last two days I can tell you that any hype you have heard is all true and you should run out and buy some immediately. I have even added some agave nectar and cocoa to some to make a chocolate creamer (I like chocolate in my coffee). And ironically the only reason they are now stocking MimicCreme is because this store no longer sells Silk soy milk products, due to their decision to stop using both local and organic soybeans (but not reflect the change on their boxes), so these creamers are their replacement.

Second, I have plans to start making my own peanut tofu. Unfortunately, I have only fnd one store (of the three that I frequent on an as needed basis) that carries raw peanuts. And none of the stores around here seem to carry granulated peanuts or peanut pieces (like what is needed to make Celine’s Peanut Milk). So I may have to look at using salted peanuts that I rinse thoroughly with water before using; however, I am not sure that is a great idea and would only be a fall back solution. I also plan on ordering a tofu kit sometime in the next week and am looking for directions on making silken tofu as well. With tofu, I can live without tempeh.

Thirdly, I am still drinking kefir, but do plan to stop my experiment. Currently I am using a starter (that is not vegan, but vegetarian) and have realized that I really do not have the space in my tiny kitchen nor the desire to have to drink this every day. I am not saying kefir is hard, just that it doesn’t work for me and my needs. Lately I have realized that this is something that I will have to drink for the rest of my life to occasionally eat soy products and that really doesn’t make sense to me. With the peanut tofu now, the only product I would want would be tempeh, and then only on occasion. Also the only other time I would eat a soy vegan product is at a restaurant. It just does not make sense to devote time and space to something; that though helpful, is a daily commitment. I am now looking at the possibilities of what I can use for occasional eating of soy products. More to follow on this. However, for those of you that are soy allergic I do suggest that you look into this and it may be a great help for you.

Fourthly (and last), starting next week is VeganMoFo 2009, which is a food blogging event that Isa at PPK Forums has put on for the last few years. I just missed last year and will be participating this time. The goal is to blog regularly in the month of October and show the world how good vegan food can be. I intend on showing that even those of us with food intolerances can still eat very healthy and wonderful vegan food. If you are not part of the PPK forums you can still participate by getting in touch with kittee and have your blog added to the list. Or you can just read and enjoy. And I hope you don’t mind leftovers, because you will see them here on a regular basis next month.

Rice Milk Recipe and Some News

Rice Milk Recipe and Some News

I had high hopes for this week. Unfortunately, they got waylaid due to me catching either a really bad cold or possibly the flu (don’t know which one) from a recruiter when I went on an interview late last week. So, except for a few smoothies and odds and ends, I really have not eaten much at all. I didn’t even have coffee for most of the week. However, I am better now.

I did manage to get the rice milk recipe perfected before I got ill. Good thing, since I have been using so much of it that the mix is just about half gone already. And I just made it on Monday. The revised recipe is below.

Rice Milk Base

3 3/4 cup water
1 Tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup rice flour white
1/2 cup heaping, almond flour
1/2 cup light agave nectar
2 Tbsp coconut oil

Bring 3 cups water to a boil in a medium sized saucepan.

Add the vanilla and rice flour to 3/4 cup water, stirring thoroughly.

Once the water boils, stir in the rice flour mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Turn heat to medium-low and boil at least five minutes, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick and no longer gritty.

Depending on equipment available:

No high powered blender:

Put almond flour, agave nectar and coconut oil into blender and blend till smooth (a Magic Bullet is fine). Add to rice flour mixture and mix with stick blender or regular blender until smooth.

High powered blender (VitaMix, etc.):

Let rice flour mixture cool. Add rice flour mixture, almond flour, agave nectar and coconut oil to blender and blend till smooth.

Once mixture is smooth and cool, pour into covered container and place in refrigerator.

Yield: 5-6 cups, probably closer to 5 ½ on average

To make rice milk:

8 oz
1/4 cup base and 3/4 cup water: mix till combined

16 oz
1/2 cup base and 1 1/2 cup water: mix till combined

It will separate in the refrigerator, but will remix quickly upon shaking.


This recipe mixes up quite smooth once blended and the almond flour is now emulsified enough that it blends easier into the rice flour mixture. The “milk” is rich enough that I drank it plain (no chocolate) and was quite satisfied. I have also used it in some cooking this week, for pancakes and some of Bryanna Grogan’s soy free mayonnaise, and it worked as well as commercial rice milk.

I had planned on doing my entry for the Tried & Tasted event, being hosted by Vaishali at Holy Cow!, featuring recipes from SusanV at the Fat Free Vegan blog. However, it is a month long event, so next week will have to do. At least what I had planned on making works for both my schedule this week and also my schedule for next week. If you would like to join in, check out the details over at Vaishali’s blog. This is the first time for me to join in one of these blog events, but to help show all the good things that Susan makes, and that she makes dishes that are either soy free or can be made soy free easily was a no brainer for me.

Now that I have kept you in suspense; the news is that as of Monday, I have a long term temporary assignment. It is at the same place where the TeddyBear works, but not in the same department. The pay is decent and due to this department being behind, I have to do a minimum of 8 hours of overtime a week, which will greatly help the paycheck. But it will greatly affect my cooking. Expect to see more quick and easy dishes. I have a feeling that the Chick-fu will become a more regular part of my diet, since it will be easy to make a meal around that in the evenings. I might also start to feature my lunches as well.

And in case you are curious what a bunny does to celebrate a new job. Why she goes grocery shopping and buys her new favorite ice cream, Coconut Bliss Hazelnut Fudge. It is quite nutty, chocolaty and satisfying.

See you all next week.

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.

New Product from Dole Foods: Good or Bad Idea

Dinner was leftovers (the Lentils Mole over rice and corn) so I thought I would write about something seen in the grocery store today. Dole has added to their line up of frozen fruit with what I think is a unique offering; frozen, sliced banana (don’t bother checking the website, not even up there yet). Now I know you are saying that you can slice and freeze banana yourself, which is true. But how many of us are going to take the time to do so. And for those of us that eat bananas on a regular basis, are you going to buy extra for smoothies and then forget about them and not get them into the freezer before they go rotten. Don’t know about you, but since the TeddyBear can really only eat bananas (due to his gastric reflux) we already buy about 2 dozen a week anyway. I don’t touch them since they are all for him (he eats about 3 or 4 a day, which is good since he doesn’t eat a lot, though I have gotten him to eat better lately); so that leaves me in the lurch for my banana needs. Which leaves me in the lurch for smoothies, since frozen bananas are a common base if you are not using ice cubes. I also thought they would be great in a cookie I want to make that takes 1 ½ cups of smashed bananas as the cookie base. Or I could just eat them a nice snack on a hot day.

So what do you think. Has Dole hit upon a new market or are they just trying to get us to spend more money on a convenience item?

*Edited to add photo after purchase from store

Kitchen Accident

Sorry for no post yesterday. I won’t be able to do one today either. Had a minor kitchen accident yesterday that resulted in my burning the finger tips of my right hand. Need to remember that a pan that has been in a preheating oven is hot LOL. They are better this morning, but my pinky has a huge blister on it. So typing is limited at the moment. Thank goodness for slates (my laptop can be in either slate or laptop mode). However, the pen input is not great for major writing. So see you on Monday.

Creative Leftovers and some Information about Me

First of all, had some of the ratatouille on the side. Am I glad that this reheats so well. Next to that is a flatbread with some of Bryanna Grogan’s Almond “Feta” (page down a bit and you will see the recipe) melted and spread over it. And under the flatbread are some spaghetti squash pancakes.

First, the spaghetti squash pancakes. They came from the listing on Recipezaar I use to cook spaghetti squash. At the end, the recipe suggests mixing the leftover squash with some flour and making pancakes out of it. I was a bit skeptical, but it works very well. The flour mixes with the moisture on the squash and makes a bit of a batter, holding it together when frying. These could definitely be useful.

The flatbread and the “Feta” were an experiment. I had come across Bryanna Grogan’s recipe for the Almond “Feta”, and was a bit intrigued. Especially since the instructions did say that you could soak the “cheese” in a brine and it would not dissolve. I can see why now. With all the agar and cornstarch, there is no way that this is going to dissolve in liquid. Now does it taste like feta. Don’t know about that, since never really had any feta in my pregan days. It does have a strong, salty taste; so in that respect it is very feta-like.

The flatbread is the Mediterranean Flatbread from Toufayan. I must confess that it is not soy free, they do use soy flour in it; as an egg replacer, according to what I learned from contacting the company. Since I have recently deduced that I can have about ¼ to ½ a serving of soy a day, some soy will seep into my diet. However, very little of that will be at home. Once I figure out how to make a decent flatbread, I won’t need to buy this anymore. The recipe that Bryanna Grogan has for the refrigerator risen bread dough look most promising, in this regard.

So that was dinner for tonight. Nice way to use up some leftovers and also try something new. All for this week. One more thing before I go. Since I accidently revealed my age in my last post. Let me just add that I am 40+. My mother has this thing about having to much presence on the web makes you un-hirable (she actually googles my name to see what I am doing and have done), so that is why I have to do all this under a screen name. Once my employment situation gets settled, e.g. I find a job and am not worried about loosing it, I just may reveal myself. That will not happen anytime soon, however.

The screen name and name of the blog come from the nickname that the TeddyBear has for me and a mythology, as it were, that he is creating. The blog name comes from a time that he accused me of taking the covers from him, in the middle of the night and made a remark about “the republic of bunny". In the mythology, I am Snugglebunny of The Republic of Bunny and he is TeddyBear of the Land of the Free Teddy Bears. It basically plays off the differences we have in our personalities. I keep telling him that he should write children’s books, but he won’t listen to me.

Well now that you know more about me than you ever thought you would, go and have a good weekend.

Frozen Vegetables Lo Mein and Stir Fry Sauce

Dinner was really simple tonight. Used up the last of the soba noodles and frozen vegetables in the freezer. Then used some more of that stir fry sauce I used last time. Did it Lo Mein style this time, just to make it different.

Was planning on doing something else, but still don’t have any energy after this morning. Spent the whole morning taking civil service tests so I can get on a list to be a library assistant in a Hillsborough County library. Mind you, this didn’t get me an interview. Only on the list, if they decide to hire and then decide to interview me. The data entry test was bad enough, but the written test was hard. I felt like I was back taking my ACT or GRE again, and I haven’t had to take a standardized test in over twenty years (oops, just gave a way my age a bit). I forgot how draining they can be. I took my GREs (general and psychology) in one day and that was not a good idea. Then I went to work at McDonalds for my evening shift (pregan days). I was half brain dead for two days after doing that. Hopefully, this will result in me getting a job, since it has cost me a fair amount of money, gas and time up to this point.

Dinner Annoyance

Sorry, no pictures tonight. My dinner, through no fault of my own, turned out to be neither vegan nor vegetarian. I had planed to have a vegetable stir-fry with a nice sweet, spice and salty sauce that I found up on vegweb. Unfortunately, the dinner kit I bought to use as stir fry vegetables (which I will sometimes do, because they have better vegetable combinations) turned out to: one, have sauce nuggets in it instead of a sauce packet, and two, those sauce nuggets were not even vegetarian. Won’t bore you with the details, but needless to say; I am a bit annoyed. This is what I get for not reading ingredients. But who would have guessed that the kit, that comes without meat added, would not even be vegetarian. It is to bad really, because the sauce is halfway decent and would be great with seitan. Which is also something I have done in the past as well, in place of the meat. Guess I am going to have to find another way to get decent stir fries and not start with fresh vegetables. Not that I have a problem using fresh vegetables in a stir fry, I just usually don’t have the odds and ends that makes one easy to put together. Might just have to start looking at the stir fry vegatables from my local whole foods store when in there. At least I know that it is vegan. Or the other option is to get a kit from the produce section of the store. At least those are vegan as well.

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.

Rice-fu “Fish”-The Recap

Sorry guys, no pictures tonight since dinner was leftovers, the Baby Corn & Peppers Stir Fry. I am also not making a bunch of new food this week, since my TeddyBear has next week off. How he got vacation this time of year in his job (he works for a company that provides back-end office services to banks and credit unions) I do not know, but he did. So next week I guess the theme is “Food to feed Omnis”. I have actually managed to find a few things he likes and Becks I am borrowing your BBQ Pulled “Pork” dish next week. Especially, since I think that your BBQ sauce would throw a lot of people on this side of the big pond for a loop. They would not be happy that a Brit can beat them at their own game. But I digress. He does like (or at least tolerates) seitan, a “Sloppy Joes” type recipe made with lentils, a dish called of all things Mexican Zucchini (possibly because of the corn, don’t know) and a few other things. Might also do a sweet and sour seitan dish as well or a stir fry. However, he is a bit of a challenge on food. Some things he will not eat due to texture (polenta, risotto), he is extremely sensitive to capsicum (the substance that makes peppers spicy) so no green peppers, and he doesn’t like any thing heavily spiced and he doesn’t like to use sauces. Now you ask, how do I cook for him. Well mostly not, since about all he can tolerate after a day at work is a salad and getting him to eat that is a trial. He frankly does not eat enough calories, as far as I know; but he may eat and not tell me about it. The truth, I just muddle through. (update, just learned he has two weeks off since he also has 32 hours of personal days he has not taken, two weeks of omni friendly food it is)

Now on to the rice-fu “fish”. It was and was not a success. It didn’t taste that bad, but it also did not taste fishlike. The rice-fu did not dissolve in the marinade, but it also did not seem to absorb it. however, that could have been because I didn’t let it sit long enough. Next time it will sit in the marinade longer, up to an hour or more. If it dissolves on me, I will have a backup for dinner. And it didn’t dissolve when being fried either. It didn’t get like the chick-fu does, but it did get a bit like the texture of a whitefish. I guess you could say the results were promising but more experimentation needs to be done. That will have to wait till I can get some ginger. I don’t tend to keep ginger around since it will go bad on me before I use it, so I cheat and use Ginger Juice from The Ginger People. That did not work in the marinade well, so need to get some jarred crushed ginger to make this again. Once I am sure it works fairly well, I will put up a picture.

One thing before I go. Would anyone be interested in a product list of ice creams, cheeses, milks and other products that are either soy protein free or even soy free (unusual though it may be). Only reason I’m asking is that I keep seeing these lists on the web of things that are vegan and things that are gluten free are very clearly labeled. Maybe if people saw a market for soy free cheeses and the like, they would be easier to find. If you think it is a good idea let me know and I will get it set up and a link to that page from the sidebar.

Meal Planning

Sorry guys, no food today. Still working on leftovers. Had them for lunch and will have them for dinner also. For lunch had the Marinated Lentil Salad, cranberries and a casserole made with left over stuffing and left over chickpeas from making Chickpea Cutlets yesterday. Dinner is going to be the Chipotle Cashew Seitan over rice again. But I will be making a few things this week.

Think I said this before, but I cook with the idea of planned leftovers. Basically, I decide what I want to make and then use that to create a shopping list. How much I cook, is dependent on how much is left over still from the week before. I’ll use this week as an example. I plan on making:

Amazing Haupia (Coconut) Pudding
Green Thai Curry (VwaV)
Baby Corn and Pepper Stir Fry from Lindsay over at the Happy Herbivore
Cinnamon Spiced Vegetables from La Dolce Vegan
Molasses Pumpkin Bars (breakfast) from Celine at Have Cake Will Travel
Spiced Lentils and Rice (from Sunday dinner)

Now I still have in the refrigerator from last week:

Mexican Chocolate Pudding (VwaV)
Banana and Walnut Pancakes (PPK recipes)
Chipotle Cashew Seitan
Marinated Lentil Salad from The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen
Stuffing from Thanksgiving
Cranberries from Thanksgiving
Baked Seitan Steaks from Thanksgiving

So as you can see, I need to eat up some stuff to have something to store new food. I really try to not eat the same food two days in a row, but things don’t always work out that way. I am also making more Burmese Tofu this week, the rice version simply because I want to try it out. If it doesn’t fall apart when I put it in the Green Thai Curry, then it might turn up as fish sticks next week. (cross your fingers and pray) I will probably have to make some more of the chickpea version also, since I am almost half-way through what was made last week.

I am really looking forward to trying the Cinnamon Spiced Vegetables since it has butternut squash and I don’t think I have had that before. It has actually been on the list for a few weeks, but have been unable to find any precut up squash. However, I was able to score some this week; so now I can try it.

Now I know all that looks like a lot of food and I bet you all think that I am a bit plump or more. Wish that was true. I have actually fluctuated between 125-135 lbs since age 18. I can’t seem to go below 125 and seem to hover around 135. My clothing size hasn’t changed since high school. In fact, I up until a few years ago I still wore clothes that I wore in high school. I just don’t eat a lot, so that is why my weight is fairly stable. Good metabolism helps also.