Sesame Sriracha Cream Cheese Bacon Scallion Puffs

Because sometimes you just want something that tastes good and takes very little effort. I mean they are called "convenience foods" for a reason, right?

These tasty little bites taste great warm, cold, or at room temperature, which makes them the perfect food to make as an appetizer, bring to a party, or just make up a batch like me and my sister, June, did on my recent visit to Portland.  And since today is her birthday, I thought I would post this in her honor.

Fried Zucchini

The food I have put into my mouth today: Breakfast was a few cups of coffee with a little vanilla silk creamer. Lunch was a zucchini mushroom veggie burger on a whole wheat bun with way too much vegenaise. A late afternoon snack at the office consisted of 2 cups of coffee and a cookie. Dinner was another burger on a whole wheat bun topped with marinara and my beloved vegenaise served up with a side of fried zucchini (recipe below) with extra marinara for dipping. It's friday night, so I had some Kahlua in my vanilla soymilk.


I find it absolutely meditative and sexy to stand in the kitchen and hand chop vegetables. There is a sensuality to it that is simply unexplainable. First the washing and the drying of freshly bought produce, and then the power of the sharp blade slicing and dicing it into little pieces of goodness that will make the meal.

I was very ready to hand slice these zucchini and even got out a hand grater to shred some for the burgers, but for some reason, I wanted to try out the slicing attachment on my food processor. I have had the thing for over two years, and have never used that attachment. So I used it. Now, damn if it didn't slice that zucchini into a bajillion little discs in a matter of 3 seconds! Whoa.

I might just have to use it a little more often...seriously what could be more sexy and powerful than a speedslicer?

Moving on. With all of these little zucchs sliced and ready, I placed them in a large ziploc bag along with:

1 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp parsley flakes
Salt and pepper to taste

Then I shook 'em up shake and bake style until I got a nice coating on each piece. Then, in a cast iron skillet, filled with about a 1/2 inch of canola, and heated, I fried these puppies until golden, about 1-2 minutes per side. Make sure you don't overcrowd the pan. Then, I removed them from the oil, placed them on a plate lined with a kitchen towel or paper towels to drain, and I popped 'em back in the bag for a fresh coating of the flour mixture. Meanwhile, I added a little bit more oil to the pan and let it heat back up. Then for the second fry. This time a little longer on each side to get that yummy golden brown color. After the second fry, it's back to the draining plate. Serve with marinara sauce for dipping. Yum.

Chocolate Covered Pumpkin Candies

Happy Halloween Again!

This one was inspired by a recipe over on FabulousFoods.com. I tweaked it to my liking and made pumpkins instead of mice.

Ingredients:
2 cups crispy rice cereal
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup coconut flakes
1/4 cup margarine
1/2 cup peanuts
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1 additional bag of chocolate chips (for melting and dipping)
wax paper

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, mix together all of the ingredients (except the extra package of chocolate chips) with your hands until you have a massive sticky, gooey mess. Then form small disc shapes, about 1/2" thick and 2" in diameter. Place on wax paper.



In a glass bowl, melt your chocolate chips in the microwave. I go one minute, stir, 30 seconds, stir...until fully melted. Dip each disc in chocolate and return to wax paper to cool and harden.



Decorate as desired! I used Marzipan to make my faces. Now, listen, I am no chocolatier! Nor am I a marzipan artiste, but these are easy, cute and I like my treats to look more like tricks anyhow!

BOO-berry Jigglers

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I don't own any proper Jell-o molds so these look a little boring, but with a proper mold, these could really be SPOOK-tacular!





BOO-berry Jigglers
Ingredients
1 cup bluberries (fresh or frozen)
1 can (14 oz) Coconut milk
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
a pinch of salt
2 tsp agaragar powder (2 tbsp flakes)

Directions
Place all ingredients, except agar powder into a pot and bring to a boil. Let boil for two full minutes and then add the agar. Boil an additional 2 minutes, stirring constantly as it begins to thicken. Remove from heat and pour into molds (I used mini muffin tins) immediately. Place in the fridge to set, at least thirty minutes.

Appetizers Take 3

Way "too vegan" to serve to regular folks. But man, sure was tasty. I guess I'll just go with the phyllo cups and mini lemon cupcakes. Thanks for all of your feedback!

Ginger Soy marinated and grilled Tofu skewers with Thai peanut dipping sauce:

Ginger Soy Marinade:
1/3 cup soysauce or tamari
1/3 cup rice vinegar
1/3 cup water
1 tsp ground ginger

Mix it all up and use as a marinade. Tofu should only marinate for about 30 minutes or it gets too salty.

I just took one block of extra firm tofu, drained and pressed, and sliced it into 6 pieces, and then cut those six peces in half. (See the diagram.) I then marinated the slices for 30 minutes and placed them on the skewers. Then on an indoor grill (a bbq would be fine too) I grilled each side of the skewer for about 1-2 minutes and then flipped it over to the next side. 4 turns total.

Simple Thai Peanut Sauce:
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup peanut oil
1/3 cup chopped green onions
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp dried red pepper flakes

Put it all in the blender and puree until smooth.

Curry Couscous stuffed mushrooms:


Curry Couscous Stuffed Mushrooms:
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup couscous
8 oz mushrooms
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp yellow curry powder
1 tbsp parsley flakes
1 tsp garam masala
Sea Salt & Fresh Cracked Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Carefully remove the stems from the mushrooms. Reserve stems, chop and saute in the olive oil in a pan along with the onions and garlic until fragrant, about 7-10 minutes. Bring water to boil. Add couscous, reduce heat and stir until all water is absorbed. Add in the sauteed mixture, curry, garam masala, salt and pepper. Mix together well. Stuff into the hollowed out mushrooms and bake for about 15 minutes. Eat the leftover couscous mixture for dinner!

Appetizers Take 2

I give you "The Phyllo Cup"...You give me...HONEST feedback!

Phyllo cup filled with a garlic, basil and sundried tomato couscous garnished with a baby basil leaf:


Phyllo cup filled with a spinach and tofu feta mixture, topped with sundried tomatoes (pretend there are toasted pin nuts on top too!):


Phyllo cup filled with sweet carmelized onions and walnuts in a balsamic reduction:


Phyllo cup filled with sweet carmelized onions and walnuts in a balsamic reduction garnished with a fresh basil leaf:

Appetizers Take One

I signed on as the only vegetarian/vegan caterer for a children's benefit on October 20th. The event will feature 10 local chefs all serving at least 2 appetizers for 250 guests. That's 500 appetizers folks! So I put my thinking cap on trying to think of the easiest, tastiest and most eye appealing appetizers and I am seriously coming up blank. I have mastered the art of making something taste great, but my presentation has left something to be desired.

Before I turned to the ppk, I tried a few things out myself. But, alas, the ppk'ers have given me such great inspiration, that I think these two may fall of the list and I will try some of their ideas out this week.

What would you make? I wanted to make one sweet and one savory, and for the sweet I was thinking of a mini one bite lemon cupcake with lemon creem cheeze frosting topped with lemon zest and a rasberry...but someone said that cupcakes don't count as appetizers. So now what?

These are two of the ideas I came up with:


This is a mushroom and garlic rissotto atop a garlic, herb and cheeze cracker (I used this recipe, and added garlic and dill.) garnished with a fresh basil leaf.


This is a fire roasted red pepper and garlic creem cheeze sauce on a small bed of alfalpha sprouts atop the same cracker, also garnished with a fresh basil leaf.

A Macaroni Weekend

Dan and I celebrated our 13 year anniversary (which is today) on Saturday. First we went to the Huntington Beach Pacific Waters Day Spa for a couple's massage followed by a couple's bath. How romantic! Then we went home and snuggled on the couch.

What could be more romantic than watching the food network with your honey? Anyhow, the macaroni and cheese challenge was on, and it inspired us to make a romantic dinner of ho'made mac and cheeze instead of going out!

I'm still trying to use up all of those bakin bits that I made so I put some in the mix. It's the Cozy Inside recipe plus 1/2 tub of tofutti better than cream cheese and bakin bits.





On Sunday my sister and nephew came over to bbq and I still had some bakin' bits leftover, so I threw them into this very basic macaroni salad.



Basic Macaroni Salad
Plain and simple.
1 lb pasta of choice
2 cups vegan Mayo
1/2 of 1 medium onion, diced
1/4 cup imitation bacon bits
1/4 cup diced green onions
2 tbsp prepared dijon mustard
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
Prepare pasta as directed, in salted water. Drain and let cool. (Or cool it off by running it under cold water.) Mix in all the other ingredients and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Yield: 12 Servings

A Break From Burgers...

...to have fun with phyllo!

An army of tasty triangles, all lined up and ready for duty!

After reading in The PPK forums that I am not alone in thinking a Saturday night at home cooking with my honey is more fun than going out to a stinky bar to spend way too much money on crappy beer...last night we decided to stay home and have fun with phyllo.

I have a humble kitchen, so we had to invent a work station by placing a door on top of a table to give us ample space to work.



I had every intention of making the VwaV Spanikopita, but alas, no fresh spinach at the grocery. Damn. So I improvised and made myself 2 varieties. One filled with the very popular (at least around my house!) Meximosa stuffing of soyrizo mixed with tofutti better than cream cheese and another filled with a delightfully sweet and savory mixture listed below:

Soyrizo mixed with Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese

Delightful Mushroom Stuffing:

Delightful Mushroom Stuffing:
(makes enough filling for 9 phyllo triangles)

Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil (for sauteing)
1 8oz package mushrooms, chopped
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 oz (about 1/2 cup) walnut pieces
1/2 cup cashews (ground up)
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp cinamon
1/4 tsp paprika
1 tsp garam masala
2 additional tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts
Sea salt and frewsh cracked pepper to taste

Directions:
Heat oil in a skillet and add the mushrooms, onions and garlic, saute until fragrant and the mushrooms have reduced by about half. Add all other ingredients excepts salt, pepper and pine nuts to a food processor and pulse a few times, so that the mixture is chopped well, yet still a bit chunky. Fold in the pine nuts and add salt and pepper to taste.

Follow the instructions in VwaV for phyllo triangles in the directions for spanikopita...which, as I stated before, was what I had intended to make in the first place.

Seitan Sliders on Biscuit Buns

Using a very variated variation of the Seitan O Greatness, I made sliders. I served 'em up on little biscuit buns! Everything is cute when it's ittle-wittle!

Meximosas?

I was going over to a friend's house Friday night and wanted to bring some finger foods that everyone would enjoy, vegan or not, while we were excitedly watching Chapters 13-22 of R.Kelly's "Trapped In A Closet." (Don't hate!) So I came up with these...SOOOOO EASY A CAVEMAN COULD DO IT!

Meximosas:


Simply, a flour salt and water dough (+/- 2 cups ap flour, +/-1 cup water and a pinch of salt), rolled out thin and cut into squares. Inside I placed a couldn't be easier mixture of 1 package of Soyrizo and 1 tub of Tofutti better than cream cheese, all mushed together. I put a pretty big dollop of filling in each one and pinched then together at the top. I baked them on a cookie tray lined with foil, and sprayed with cooking spray, for about 20 minutes at 350. Half way through baking I brushed them with olive oil. These things got ate up like they were crack!

So, I wanted to make them again yesterday, but didn't have all of the same ingredients. It was 108 degrees outside, and I was still hungover from the previous night's adventures, so I wasn't about to get dressed and go to the market. I improvised.




Same idea with the dough...rolled out and cut into squares, but this time for the filling I used: 1 cup of TVP granules, reconstituted in the microwave with 1 cup of water and 2 packets of Taco seasoning plus some extra cumin, I also added 1 block of extra firm Tofu crumbled and mashed into the mix and some vegan sour cream and a little nooch. Damn if these weren't better than the originals...I was in hangover mode...so I made a few bitesized ones and A HUGE CALZONE SIZED ONE!!! Good eats, for sure.

Pinwheels!

Nothing fancy here, just a bit of tofutti cream cheese, lettuce, some tortillas and in one...avocados, in the other...seitan. Rolled up and sliced up. Easy and light when the weather is hot.

Guacamole & Super Nachos

I was really craving nachos, but what's nachos without guacamole. So first I had to make the guac...then I got to make the nachos.

These Nachos were piled high. Tortilla Chips covered in Nacho Cheezy Sauce, Black Beans, TVP taco meat, more cheeze, salsa, more cheeze, guacamole, Easy Tofu Sour Creem, green onions, jalapenos, and of course, more cheeze!

Garlic Hummus

So good. Lots of extra sesame oil and pine nuts. Delicious with warm flatbread.

7 Layer Dip

This was originally inspired by my cousin Leah, who makes an awesome 7 layer dip for every holiday get together. Unfortunately for me, NOT VEGAN!

Then I started testing recipes for Joanna, and she had some great mexican dishes. So now this 7 layer dip is also inspired by the great Joanna (Who's Magazine is going to be called "Yellow Rose Recipes"and I will keep you posted on when it can be ordered!)







Layer 1: Black Refried Beans
I used Joanna's recipe, but any vegan refried beans will work.

Layer 2: Taco TVP "Meat"
I used Joanna's recipe, but I think any packet of taco seasoning mixed with reconstituted TVP would work fine.

Layer 3: Nacho Sauce
Once Again, I used Joanna's recipe, but there are a million noochy nacho sauces out there.

Layer 4: Salsa
I like a lot of flavor, so I used Joanna's salsa recipe, but you can use any store bought salsa, or even just some diced tomatoes.

Layer 5: Sour Cream
Joanna's Tangy Sour cream is AWESOME, but any vegan version will do.

Layer 6: Avocado
Just diced and tossed in some lemon juice. Guacamole would be an excellent choice here too.

Layer 7: Olives
I don't really like olives, but the color is nice. I suppose green onions would work well as a sub.

Joanna's Tester Nacho Sauce

Sorry kids...this is a test recipe, so I cannot divulge any recipes today!

This stuff is tasty. I have never made a nooch sauce that didn't call for ground nuts, so I was skeptical. But it thickened up quite nicely and had a good flavor.





I also calculated the Nutritional Facts, as 2 servings per batch: It is an "A" food, nutritionally!

New Year's Eve Snack followed by a New Year's Hangover Cure

Originally Posted on Tuesday, January 02, 2007

These are not prettydishes, but man are they tasty!

I made this really easy, really fattening and really YUMMY spinach artichoke dip to bring to a party:



Spinach Artichoke Dip:

• 2, 15 oz cans of artichoke hearts, drained and quartered
• 1, 15 oz can of spinach, drained
• 1 shallot, (or any onion) diced
• 1/2 cup nooch (Nutritional Yeast)
• 2 (or more) cloves of garlic, minced
• 1, 8oz tub of Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese
• 1/2 cup Vegannaise
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• Fresh Cracked Black Pepper to taste

Mix up all of the ingredients well, and put into a casserole dish, sprinkle the top with a little extra nooch, vegan parm or ground cashews and bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until bubbly. Serve hot/warm with pitas, flatbreads, or crackers.
And New Year's Day Hangovers were cured with an attempt at Pumpkin Pancakes and the VwaV Tofu Scramble:
In my new cast Iron Skillet:

In my bowl:

A lonely and burnt, but still yummy, pumpkin pancake:

mmmmmm...nachos

Originally Posted on Wednesday, December 06, 2006

mmmmmm...nachos