VeganMoFo and Mini Mexican "Pantry" Pies

Even though I have burgers in the fridge, I wanted to make something a little spicier. I used the same recipe for masa that I used to make tamales a couple of weeks ago, spread it into ramekins, topped with a mixture of TVP & taco seasoning and baked in a water bath at 350 for 45 minutes. For the larger ones, I put an extra layer of masa on top as well. Now I can bring these tasty little "pies" with me to work, pop 'em in the microwave and have a yummy, satisfying lunch.

Ready to go into the oven:


Topped with sour creem, ground chipotles and chopped jalapenos:


Edited to add my food for the day: Breakfast was coffee with silk soy vanilla creamer. Lunch was a very dry, cold, veggie burger (no vegenaise and I can't buy any more until after Thanksgiving!) on two pieces of wheat bread (no buns either!) and a bag of Have'a Chips. Dinner was 2 glasses of Soy Nog and two of these little pies.

Just a Reminder...

When ordering a print version of Cozy Inside, it takes 7-10 days to arrive. So, since you are planning on ordering a few as gifts for the holidays, please keep this in mind.

VeganMoFo and "Pantry" Burgers

Having neglected the burger testers for quite some time now, I came up with this burger only using stuff I already had in my pantry. As I was making it, Dan (my husband) said, "What are you making?" "Why? Do YOU want one?" "Yeah, that looks and smells really good."

I therefore call this a success. He NEVER eats what I make.

CousCous Pantry Burgers (uncooked):

Cooked:

Add caption

Sorry guys, no recipe. I'm giving it up to the testers.

VeganMoFo and Answers to Questions

When I was about 21 or 22, I worked two jobs AND went to school full time, AND I still found time to have fun. Now, having two jobs seems like the end of the world! I am so exhausted when I get home that I don't feel like doing ANYTHING! Not even cook, or bake, or blog, or ANYTHING! I am sure I will get into a groove, as this is only the first week. Because I made nothing in my kitchen today, but leftovers, for today's entry...

...I have decided to answer the list of questions that Liz posted on her blog.

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?
It used to be silk, but lately it has been the Von's (Safeway) Organic Storebrand light version.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
Butternut squash/pumpkin ravioli, cinnamon rolls, more burgers

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
Earth Balance, Salt and Nooch

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
It was a curry recipe. The lid fell off of my curry bottle and the entire bottle of curry powder fell into the skillet. I tried to scoop most of it out, but there was a lot of curry in there. I served it anyways...my husband tried to politely eat it, but finally said, "I'm sorry, babe, but this just doesn't taste right." I started cracking up.

5. Favorite pickled item?
Pickles

6. How do you organize your recipes?
In a 3 ring binder with clear protective sheets

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
trash and garbage disposal (and dogs!)

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)?
Nooch, Pasta, Soy Nog

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
My sister, Kristen, and I would make "dough" when we were home alone in the summertime. we would just mix together flour and other sweet ingredients until it was a dough like consisitency and then eat it. We also used to melt butter and pour it over dry frosted flakes!

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?
So Delicious

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
Cast Iron Skillet, followed closely by the food processor.

12. Spice/herb you would die without?
Garlic

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
Vegetarian cooking of the Mediterranean

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
Grape

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
Cupcakes...or Mac & Cheeze

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
Seitan!!!

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

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
A big basket with a Wok and a few other things that won't fit anywhere else inside it.

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
edamame, tofu and brocolli

20. What's on your grocery list?
Nothing! No grocery shopping until Thanksgiving for me!

21. Favorite grocery store?
Whole Foods

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

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa's because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?
Cakemaker to the Stars, have cake, will travel, Julie's Kind Kitchen

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
Chico Stix

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?
Soy Nog (totally unnessecary splurge.)

26. What was your favorite food BEFORE becoming veg*n?
Bacon. Sorry.

Today I had coffee, black, for breakfast, leftover pasta from yesterday for lunch along with a burger bun (as a side?) and a couple of cookies. Skipped dinner, but had 2 glasses of soynog. One with Kahlua in it.

VeganMoFo and Pasta a la Pantry

My love for pasta goes back to when I was a very wee little one and my sister and I would eat spaghetti noodles with melted margarine sprinkled with salt. I think, other than lasagna (because that was Garfield's favorite food), that was my favorite meal. When I first became a vegetarian, I relied heavily on pasta. And still do today, especially when dining out and eating over at friend's and family's homes. I always have a stash of pastas in my pantry. It's easy to make, and easy to make fantastic. Pasta is my go to food on busy days like today. I put the water on to boil, and go get ready for work. After my hair is done, I go put the pasta in. By the time I am dressed, and the make-up is on, I mix in a tasty sauce, then hit the road. And hopefully, I remember to bring it with me. This is a really easy noochy sauce that I use some variation of when I don't feel like going to the trouble of making a full on baked mac and cheese. Very simply, I add to 1 pound of prepared pasta, in this case fettucine: about 1/2 cup soy cream (like Silk) about 1/2 cup nutritional yeast about 1/4 cup ground cashews about 1/4 cup of vegan sour cream (like Tofutti Sour Supreme) about 3 tbsp of margarine (like Earth Balance) about 2 tbsp white miso a touch of garlic powder a touch of paprika a touch of parsley a touch of salt I just throw it all in the pot and stir it up until it gets nice and creamy. It's pretty rich, but it definitely hits the spot. Yum. Edited to add: Today, for breakfast I had coffee with plain silk creamer, lunch was the above pasta, dinner was the above pasta and leftover garlic knots from yesterday. And a few generic oreos to satisfy my sweet tooth.

VeganMoFo and Petits Pains Lail et au Persil

All I can say about tonight, is that when I saw this, I couldn't NOT make it! So yum, so easy, so perfect! The way she describes it just made me swoon. And the way she talks about the goodness and equally the badness of garlic bread just spoke to me. Besides, I had all of the ingredients to make it. (Remember that I cannot buy any groceries until the week of Thanksgiving.)

We decided to make this tonight. I, as I cannot follow directions, did not follow her folding directions. Everything else was followed to a "T."

For the shapes I used, I called unto my past. When I was in highschool, I worked at Subway. It was there that I learned the fine art of "braiding" bread. I surprised even myself when I pulled this long lost talent right out of my behind.


The "knots" are inspired by the garlic knots served up by the local pizza delivery joint, Zitos. They have parm on them, and therefore I cannot eat them. So I made my own. The spirals? Why not?


Today I worked. I forgot to pack a lunch (I had to be at work by 6am so my brain wasn't quite awake yet) and therefore had to buy lunch. I am not sure this counts as a violation of the great grocery experiment or not. I drank some coffee for breakfast with some vanilla soy creamer. For lunch it was a "Gardener's Wrap" and Have'a Chips from Wild Oats, and for dinner I had the above mentioned garlic bread. Yes, I had garlic bread for dinner. In conjunction with some soymilk and generic Kahlua. Lots of it. Sue me. Geez. It is Saturday night, and I've had a helluva week.

VeganMoFo: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving.

I love Thanksgiving! Dead birds aside, my family has a great time together, eating drinking and telling really stupid stories about eachother from year's passed. We always crack up, and we always have a good time. This year, same as last, I will be responsible for the "vegan" table. Normally there are 5 of us, but this year, only 3 will be there. I usually make enough food for a small army, but it's always awesome. The omnivores are always interested in tasting the "weird" stuff and they always have nice things to say.

This is last year's feast (not everything is showing) :


Our table consisted of pumpkin gnocchi, Bourbon Sweet Potato Mash, Greek Stuffing, VCTOTW Pumpkin Cupcakes, VwaV Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy, Garlic Smashed Potatoes, A Tofu Not-A-Turkey with Stuffing, Green Bean Casserole, Nutty Cheeze Sqaures and crackers (because not only do we do dinner, we also do appetizers and snacks), SunDried Tomato Focaccia, and of course, SoyNog!

This year I am making Greek Stuffing, Bourbon Sweet Potato Mash, Fried Nutty Cheeze Sticks with Marinara, Butternut Squash Ravioli in a sage cream sauce, Traditional stuffing, a loaf of ho'made wheat bread, Joanna's Sesame Green Beans, and I am still trying to think of a dessert.

What are you making?

Today was the first time in over four years that I had to punch a timeclock at a "job." I have forgotten what it's like to work a straight 8 hour day. I really like being my own boss, so this transition is going to be strange. Especially when it comes to meals. I have decided to pack my lunch, whenever possible, to save money and time (I only get a 30 minute lunch break.) Today I had coffee with vanilla silk creamer for breakfast, a Scarborough fair burger on a bun with vegenaise and some generic oreos for lunch, and I totally skipped/forgot to eat dinner because when I got home from work I cuddled up with my sick kitty, and konked out for the night.

My first Food Porn and how the PPK changed my life.

Today I ask, "When did you discover food porn?" And before that, did you care about the presentation of your food? I have always loved to prepare meals for others and I love having dinner parties. But I always did it buffet style and therefore never really cared about the presentation on each plate. Then, I received "Vegan with a Vengeance" as a gift, and discovered the PPK. It's strange to think that anyone can even be a vegan without knowing about the PPK. Yet so many are. Even I had been making recipes from that book before I ever checked out the website. In fact, I had many other vegan and vegetarian cookbooks before, but none had ever changed my life! Now I take pictures of almost every meal I make, and blog about it, and post about it. Literally, the PPK has changed my life. Making dinner was no longer just making dinner, it was an experience. Isa (and Terry, and lots of other talented folks) inspired me to not only cook, but create.

This was the first food porn I ever posted. Be nice. I remember it well, because those biscuits were as hard as a rock and tasted like crud! It was on October 18, 2006. Just a little over a year ago. So much has changed since then.

Another very busy day. I got a new (2nd) job and today I had orientation. First I had to go the vet with my kitty, then to my real job, then the orientation for the new job, then I finally got to come home. Needless to say, I was pooped. I forgot to bring my lunch with me to work, so I had the coconut curry seitan I made last night waiting for me when I got home. Thank goodness. For breakfast I had coffee with soymilk and a plain bagel. I skipped lunch, but had a soy latte on my way from one job to the next, dinner was the curry, and a late evening snack was some kahlua and soymilk with some cookies. Not the healthiest of days, but...

Busy Day = Easy Food

Some days are just too busy to create a masterpiece in the kitchen. Today was one of those days. Although I wanted to just kick back and order pizza, I still mustered up enough energy to make myself a nice, and easy dinner. Usually on nights like this, I just boil up some pasta, melt a little EB on it and call it dinner, but I wasn't in the mood for that. So as I tried to think of things I liked together, and stared into my pantry, I came up with this.

Out of my pantry (and fridge) I took:
1 13.5oz can of coconut milk
1 15oz can of peas
1/4 cup of cashews
1 cup of brown rice
1 tbsp yellow curry powder
1 cup of water
1/4 of a log of Lachesis Seitan'O'Greatness (sliced into strips)
a pinch of salt
a dash of pepper

Then I threw it all in a nice big skillet, let it simmer until most of the moisture was absorbed and the rice was tender and called it done. There's even enough leftover to take to work tomorrow for lunch.



Other things I ate today: Coffee, a zucchini mushroom burger on a bun with vegenaise for breakfast, a scarborough fair burger on a bun with vegenaise for lunch and above recipe for dinner.

EcoLibris

I got this email, thought it was interesting, so I am reposting it here as requested by the sender:

Dear Joni,

I saw you're taking part in VeganMoFo, and therefore I thought you might be interested in a book recommendation by Victoria E on The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau that we posted today on our blog (http://ecolibris.blogspot.com/2007/11/joy-of-vegan-baking-holiday-green-gift.html).

This recommendation is part of Eco-Libris' Holiday Green Gift Guide for Book Lovers - a guide that is aimed to help people find the best green books to give as gifts this holiday season.
Please allow me to introduce Eco-Libris: it is a new green biz that lets book readers balance out the paper used for the books they read by planting trees. About 20 Million trees are cut down annually for virgin paper used for the production of books sold in the U.S. alone. What we want to do is to raise awareness to the environmental impacts of using paper for the production of books and provide people with an affordable and easy way to do something about it: plant one tree for every book they read. Our customers also receive a sticker made of recycled paper for every book they balance out saying “One tree planted for this book” and can later display these stickers on their books' sleeves. You are welcome to check out our website at: http://www.ecolibris.net

If you could feature our recommendation at your blog that really would be great! I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thanks! Best regards, Raz GodelnikEco-Libris