Easter Feaster

I made several things for my Easter Feaster. My plans didn't work out the way I wanted, since Mikey had to work, but I did get my eat on.

I made Peanut Butter Cups the night before. These were mostly for my dad and Mikey, to encourage them to avoid dairy. They were so easy to make too! First I melted half a bag of chocolate chips in the microwave. I added in a little Earth Balance, mixed it in and then put it into cupcake holders:


I froze them while I went shopping for my nieces. When I came back, I got about a cup and half of peanut butter, mixed it with some Earth Balance (which is a margarine) and crushed about 5 vanilla wafers, and mixed them in as well. I then put a dollop of peanut butter on top of the frozen tops.
Then I melted the rest of the chocolate chips, mixed them with the Earth Balance and I dropped chocolate on the peanut butter. Spoons were not my friend here. I used a toothpick to even out the chocolate on top.

Things got messy. I froze those for about an hour and then they were ready to eat!




On the healthier side (sort of. Not really), I made an ambrosia salad. I took two chopped bananas, chopped pineapple, a can of mandarin oranges, a can of cubed pears, a small jar of maraschino cherries, a 1/2 cup of chopped pecans, shredded coconut and mixed them all together. Then I took some non-dairy pistachio pudding mix, mixed it with almond milk and poured about half over the salad (my sister ate the rest). And there you have it, easy ambrosia:



Finally, for dinner Mikey was going to make grilled stuffed mushrooms, but he was at work, so I made a simple meal instead. I cooked some green beans, made a salad, warmed some rolls and veganized a new mashed potato recipe I saw in a magazine. The original called for potato flakes (ew), chicken broth (ew) and white beans (yay). Instead, I boiled six peeled and chopped potatoes. When they were done and drained, I took a cup of vegetable broth and blended it with a can of white beans in the blender. I poured this mix into the potatoes instead of plain soymilk. I added about three spoonfuls of Earth Balance, a little bit of garlic and some salt and pepper. It came out really well. The bean taste was only slightly noticeable and it actually gave the potatoes a nice flavor. And I got my protein and carbs all at once!

Allison's Gourmet

Hello! For those of you who didn't know, I won Allison's Gourmet Easter Scavenger Hunt! right after I complained about how I never win anything! It's like the universe said "in your face, Jennifer!" in a good way. Anyway, I thought I'd review it, seeing as how I've never had any product from Allison's before.

As you can see, the fudge came in a lovely box...I kind of didn't want to ruin it, but there was FUDGE inside!

Here is what the inside looked like:


I cut and shared the fudge with everyone in my family. Everyone agreed it was delicious. It was the Java Crunch Flavor, and it was basic chocolate fudge with coffee powder sprinkled on top. I personally am not a fan of coffee at all, and even I liked it (although I liked the bits without the coffee better). The texture was smooth, creamy and the right kind of soft. I only had two bites because I'm doing P90X and I have a wedding to look good for. I think my mom and sister had one or two as well. My fiance, who is a choco fiend, had four. My father is the King of the Choco Fiends and he had the entire box, minus our pieces. He recently went vegan, so I was happy to make the concession to him.
In the future, when I am too lazy to make my own fudge, I will definitely be buying from Allison's. Since Father's Day is coming up, I think I may have to order some more chocolate products!

Enfrijoladas

Enfrijoladas is a very delicious dish that many people have never heard of. I believe it is regional to a specific part of Mexico (Jalisco?) and it's never offered in Mexico. Luckily, I was taught how to make it by someone from Mexico and it was very easily veganized. The best way I can explain it is enchiladas with bean sauce.
So I present to you now...Enfrijoladas!
2 c frijoles de la olla or 1 can of pinto beans
1 ripe tomato, roughly chopped
1 serrano chile, chopped
1/2 brown onion, chopped
2 tbs of minced garlic
1 tbs of Mexican oregano (regular is fine, too!)
1 1/2-2 c vegetable broth
6-8 tortillas (note: you need very fresh tortillas, preferably from a tortilleria if you can get them. If you must buy store-bought, warm them first).
1 c Daiya cheddar
Cooking oil

Preheat oven to 375. In a large bowl, combine the beans and broth. Meanwhile, pour the cooking oil (I used Canola, but olive is fine too), enough to saute the veggies in. Saute the onion, garlic, tomato and chile for three minutes, or until soft. Add the oregano and saute another minute.

(It doesn't matter how finely they're chopped because it's all going to be blended)

Add the beans and broth and simmer for about ten minutes.



After ten minutes, remove the bean mixture from the heat for about five minutes. Very carefully, pour the mixture into a blender and puree for ten seconds. Pour the sauce back into the pan and warm for two minutes, stirring every few seconds.


Now it gets tricky. Using tongs, you're going to take the tortilla, dip both sides in the bean mixture, and transfer to a glass baking dish, folded in half. This is why the tortillas need to be fresh or warm because they won't fold over correctly otherwise.


Dipping side one...



Dipping side two...



Folding over in my dish...


Attempting to fold neatly.

Once the tortilla is in the dish, lift up the top flap and put a handful of cheese inside, then refold.



Once you have made all 6-8, take the remaining bean sauce and cover the tortillas, like you would with enchilada sauce. If you have a lot left over, don't use it all. Make sure the tortillas still stick up a little.



Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. The bean sauce will look slightly browner and maybe harden a bit when done.


And YAY! Enfrijoladas. They are kind of hard to get out of the pan without breaking and sticking, but who cares. They are delicious. I served mine with lettuce and onions and a side of chips. I would have added sour cream but I was out. They would also go well with orange or yellow rice.


If you try this, let me know how it works out!

Food for Lazy People aka Black Bean Casserole

I got back from whale watching and feeling seasick yesterday so I was not in the mood to get fancy. I looked in the pantry, saw some ingredients and came up with a black bean casserole for lazys.

1 can of black beans
1 can of either Rotel chiles and tomatoes or chopped tomatoes and chiles
1 bag of tortilla chips
about a cup or so of cheddar Daiya
2 green onions

Preheat oven to 350. Smash a bunch of the tortilla chips on the bottom of a small casserole dish, enough to cover the bottom. Pour about half the can of beans (drained!) over the chips. Then pour half the tomatoes and chiles over that. Chop one of the green onions and sprinkle over the tomatoes, then put about half the cheese over that. Then put another layer in the same order, using a little more cheese on top. Put in the oven for about 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is nice and melty.
I served mine with some homemade guacamole, which I made while the casserole cooked. In the future, I may add soy crumbles.
And TADA! Casserole for lazy vegans! Would also taste great with Tapatio or Sririacha (or however you spell it).

Meatloaf!

I got an urge to eat meatloaf the other day, and one thing after another prevented me from making it. My other issue was that none of the meatloaf recipes I found were what I wanted or else they were complicated. Red meat was the last thing I gave up and I have fond memories of eating a big meatloaf sandwich with red onion, made for me by my grandma. So I set out to create my own meatloaf recipe, suited to my tastes.

1 1/2 package veggie crumbles, defrosted
1 c. bread crumbs (go more or less depending on preference)
1 can of plain tomato sauce
1/2 onion, chopped (I prefer red, brown will also work)
2 tbs vegan Worcester sauce
2 tbs tamari
Salt, pepper, dried oregano and dried basil, to taste
1 tsp garlic salt

I set the oven to 350. I warmed the veggie crumbles in the microwave. Defrosting is preferable if you have time. I mixed the crumbles with bread crumbs. Once they were mixed, I added in the tomato sauce, a little bit at a time, mixing as I went along. Then I added the tamari and worcester sauce and mixed well.

Note: don't use the bread crumbs in the pic! They aren't vegan....someone bought these for me without reading the label. There's a lot of junk in there.
I added a little bit of salt, pepper, basil and oregano and threw in a tiny bit of garlic salt. Finally, I added the chopped onions. I pressed the mixture into an oiled loaf pan and baked it in the oven for half an hour.
Before
After
When it was done, I served it with portobello mushroom gravy on top, the recipe which I got here and a nice spinach salad.



This recipe would easily adapt itself to the inclusion of other veggies such as carrot cubes or chopped celery. I want to mess with it a little and see how that works, but it got the seal of approval from my meat-eating mother and my very recent vegetarian fiance and I hope it can encourage other omnis out there to give it a try :)

Tofu Salad

I made tofu salad for lunch today. I got the initial recipe from the Crazy Sexy Diet book. Mike really liked it, but I kind of had issues with it. I thought it a little on the plain side and I wanted to jazz it up a little.


It's pretty easy to make.
1 drained package of firm tofu, crumbled
1/2 cup vegan mayo (I used plain Vegenaise. I recommend the Dijon for more flavor)
1/4 dijon mustard
2 carrots, peeled into ribbons
1/2 chopped brown onion
Handed ful of parsley, minced
The basic recipe calls for these ingredients well mixed together. I got jazzy and added
1/2 can of black olives, chopped
1/4 cup chopped pickles
2 teaspoons chili powder
Salt and pepper to taste

This made it much more flavorful and a little more like my awesome potato salad (coming soon).

Since I'm trying to teach omnis more about a meat-free life, I will say that tofu is very strange the first time you crumble it. It helps to take it out of the fridge and let it sit for a awhile because I really hate crumbling extremely cold tofu. It reminds me of the time I went hiking in February and had to cross a stream created by snowmelt. Not a fun time. Also, it's very important you drain your tofu well, so your salad does not become watery.
Also, I've found the tofu is more flavorful when I allow the salad to sit for at least half an hour.

Tonight, I'm taking on meatloaf. Stay tuned....

Loving Hut

First off, Loving Hut sounds like a Polynesian porno title. But I digress. I've had a drink from the one located in the Westfield Shopping Center in San Francisco, but I've never had their food before. See, I'm not big on Asian food, except perhaps Indian. I don't know why; their flavors usually aren't my thing. But Mikey likes it (he likes it! Hey Mikey!) (sorry, that was terrible) so I gave it a try.

I went to the closest one, in Upland, Ca. They sell some prepackaged foods at their counter, like Daiya, Dandies, Go Max Go candy bars and Vegenaise there, which is pretty cool.

Their menu was different than the one in SF. That one was more like a Panda Express, with pre-made food under heat lamps. The drink menu there was also a lot smaller. This one had a fairly decent menu with good drinks.
I had a berry shake to drink:

It was nice and creamy, kind of like drinking berry ice cream.

Mikey had pineapple green drink:

It as very sweet and syrupy, too much so for lunch.

For our lunch, I had the Simply Fried Rice:

It was fried brown rice, with chunks of peas, carrots, onions and fried tofu. The fried tofu was meant to resemble the flavor of chicken slightly and was very good. I put a lot of chili sauce on it, but then, I love things spicy. It was fried with a little soy sauce and was simple, but filling.
Mikey had something called the Sweet and Sour Lady. It was not the most weirdly named menu item, either. I'm shocked mine wasn't Super Love Happy Rice.

I frankly thought it was disgusting. I think the mock meat was supposed to be sweet and sour grilled chicken and I don't care for sweet and sour food. It is not something that appeals to my palate. The mock meat was also chewy and weird. The salad had some funky ass honey mustard-like dressing on it that I did not think was appealing either. The brown rice was the best thing about it.
I suppose for former meat eaters who miss sweet and sour stuff at Panda Express et al., this would be a good transition. Mike thought it was great, so point proven. For me, however, I will stick to rice and chow mein at places like this.