Sorry about not many posts recently. I went to a conference thing for homeschoolers. It's where you stay in a hotel with a ton of other homeschoolers, and you all pretty much party all day and night.  You get to have lots of fun and meet a lot of new people.

And being a vegan, plus not having oodles of money (it was a five day thing) I couldn't really go out and eat at restaurants all the time, plus I wanted more time with my new friends. So I had to make some food that could be prepared quickly, was portable, vegan, and didn't require any appliances but a microwave and a mini fridge or a cooler. So, what did I make that met so many requirements? well, there was the obvious sandwiches. But I also made some bean and rice burritos, some breakfast burritos, and some calzones, as well as many snacks such as cookies, fruit leather, granola bars, Clif bars, and fresh and dried fruit.

For the sandwiches, I had peanut butter and jelly for PB&Js, lettuce, tomato, mustard, hummus, and veggie meat for the meaty sandwiches.

For the bean and rice burritos, I heated 1 can black beans, 1 can refried beans, and added a little cumin. for the rice I made this, (with veggie broth instead of chicken) and served those on a whole wheat tortilla with tomatoes, lettuce, salsa, and avocado. Then froze them in plastic bags.

For the calzones, I made some pizza dough rolled them into small, thin rounds, put some pasta sauce on half, but away from the edges, then added a tofu ricotta (crumbled tofu, herbs, and spices) and a mixture of sauteed mushrooms, onions, peppers, zucchini, and calamata olives. Then put a little sauce on top, then wet the edges with water, folded the dough over, and pinched it shut. Then I brushed it with oil, poked three holes in it with a fork, and cooked on a cookie pan at 400 degrees until the crust was cooked through and golden brown. And then let them cool, and then put in plastic bags and froze.

Vegan Dad review: Veggie Lunch Meat

First off, sorry there haven't been many posts recently, I know I said I would post all of my meals, but I think I might be a bit too busy to do that all the time. But I will try.

Now, on to the review!

So I tried making Vegan Dads' Veggie Lunch Meat. And it's very tasty, I did have some problems though, although I won't go into them since it had nothing to do with the recipe. (my burner caught on fire!) I also only added 2 1/2 cup wheat gluten. Which worked out great. I just had a nice sandwich, and it was very delightful.

For those of you who want to know how it tastes, well It tastes a lot like a Tofurkey roast, just without the stuffing. And then you can slice it up and it tastes like Tofurkey deli slices. I added a bit more seasoning also, since the dough seemed a bit boring. I added some extra spices, and replaced some of the water with veggie broth.

So all in all, I like this recipe, and suggest you guys try it, but maybe with a little more seasoning than the recipe calls for.

Barbecue!

The last few days have been very hot, so I decided to have a barbecue.

Most people when they think barbecue, they think hamburgers, steaks, ribs, and all that other nasty stuff. Then once you vegan, you think prepackaged frozen veggie burgers, corn, maybe some tofu steaks. It's pretty sad. But there are plenty of great ways to have a vegan barbecue without a ton of over processed foods. Just think, veggie kabobs, (zucchini, yellow squash, peppers, onions, whole mushrooms, etc) add in some tofu, seitan or tempeh on there if you're feeling fancy. Grilled plain old vegetables. Such as corn, peppers (I prefer red) zucchini (makes those perfect little grill marks you see in magazines) onions (I've heard you can do them whole, but I usually grill them in thick slices) whole mushrooms, whatever.

Homemade burgers, like black bean. (I made the ones from Veganomicon, precooked them a little in a pan first, then grilled them and they came out great. Be sure to baste them with a little sauce of some sort though, because they will dry out a little) Another thing that works as a great burger is the portobello mushroom (I've never been quite sure how you spell it though...) It comes out magnificent as is with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

There's also the homemade or store bought hotdogs/sausages, but I'm not too into them.

And there you've got a great barbecue. Burgers, kebabs, corn, grilled vegetables, maybe some coleslaw or a salad, or potato salad to go with it. Yummy. I'd go to that barbecue any day.

Another Google image...

Cooking class + chocolates

Tonight I went to another of my cooking classes. Todays subject.... Tofu!

We made "egg" salad, mayonnaise, "egg" fried rice, and a baked sort of meaty tofu dish, that supposedly tastes similar to bacon. I didn't think so, but it did taste very good, and a lot better than bacon. So if you live anywhere near Portland or Salem, I suggest taking one of David Gabbe's classes. :D

I'd share the recipes, but all of the recipes are in his cookbook, so I don't feel qualified to share them with the world. And I'm not sure how available it is if you don't take his class, but the name of his cookbook is David's Pure Vegetarian Kitchen. He's very health conscious, and only eats whole grains, and organic soy products. And he really does his homework with nutrition and health.

Also, me going for the chocolate again. (such a bad person)

So here's some of the chocolaety delights I made tonight. However, if you really shouldn't be having chocolate you probably shouldn't read on.

Here's the list of what I made:

chocolate covered almonds

peanut butter filled chocolate

almond butter filled chocolate

strawberry almond creme filled chocolate

chocolate covered crystalized (candied) ginger

and coconut chocolate things. (very scientific name)

So I melted some chocolate in a small pan over medium heat, until completely smooth, stirring fairly often. If you aren't as careful as I am, use a lower temperature, or a double-boiler, or both. then I started dipping almonds and crystalized ginger and putting them on some wax paper. I find using chopsticks works really well, but if you aren't good at using chopsticks, use something else.

I also separated some of the chocolate into a bowl, and mixed in some shredded coconut, then put it into bite-sized pieces on the wax paper.

And then for the peanut butter and almond butter ones, I put small dollops of them on some wax paper, and froze it.

Then I put some frozen strawberries, soymilk, and almond butter in a food processor (blender works too) and blended 'til smooth, then I put small dollops of that on some wax paper, and froze it. then once the almond butter, peanut butter, and strawberry-almond creme fillings were all frozen, I dipped them in chocolate and put them on the wax paper. If you have leftover chocolate, add some flavoring, you could just mix in some peanut or almond butter, orange extract, mint extract, instant coffee, (add about 1/4 of the water so that you get a stronger coffee) etc. I make chocolates about every month  or so, so I'll keep you posted on any new ideas I come up with.

Peanut butter truffles. Courtesy of Google images.

So it's been a week since I posted asking if I should post my everyday meals, and it seems that no one reads my blog. So I will assume my future readers (if there ever are any) would prefer as many blog posts as possible. So I am going to post my everyday meals now.

Here's what I had today:

Flax Plus cereal (pumpkin raisin)

Hot sandwich, with sauteed mushrooms, onions, peppers, and spinach, in tomato sauce on some toasted bread. Kind of like a meatball sandwich, but with veggies instead of meatballs, it was pretty tasty.

And then for dinner I just had some leftover pasta, nothing special, but this is how my meals went. There were also some snacks, and drinks, such as chocolate (I'm a big sucker for chocolate) and strawberry lemonade.

Edit: Ah, and the midnight "snack", was a mug of soup, made of leftover cooked vegetables, and leftover brown rice, and a vegetable broth.

Veganomicon review:

Another Veganomicon review today. Today I made the chickpea cutlets, I've heard a lot of great reviews about this recipe, but to be honest, I'm just not diggin' it. Maybe I made it wrong or something, but it was just really dense, chewy, and the taste wasn't that great to make up for it. And it took a while to make.  However, just because this particular recipe is not all that great, it could just be that I made it wrong, and The Veganomicon has plenty of other great recipes to make up for it.

Veganomicon review:

So today I made Veganomicons' chocolate-chocolate chip-walnut cookies, I didn't have any chocolate chips though, so I guess it's more of just a chocolate cookie, with walnuts.

First off, these cookies look picture perfect. Seriously, they look like those cookies you would see in a magazine. I wasn't even that careful when rolling them into balls.

Second, these cookies taste amazing. They're so good, so rich and chocolatey, and they taste great with a glass of soymilk. (and I don't even like soymilk!)

And third, they were really easy to make, some cookies, such as sugar cookies, take a long time to make, because of the chilling, rolling it out, using cookie cutters, etc. But these cookies are about as easy as chocolate chip cookies, just mix the ingredients together, and roll them into balls, and bake. 

The only complaint I have about these cookies is that they do require you to keep an eye on them, I accidentally burned a batch really bad.

But all in all, they are some damn fine cookies if I do say so myself.

And here is another photo from Google images.

Flax Plus cereal

So I've discovered a new kind of cereal, and it's really good!

It's called Flax Plus, and it's got something kind of like corn flakes, but made of whole wheat and flax, then it's got little clumps of sweetened oatmeal, raisins, and pumpkin seeds. It's really good. The one I just described was the pumpkin raisin kind, but they have a bunch of other kinds too. Such as raisin bran flakes, red berry crunch, maple pecan, and regular.

It's orgaic , and vegan, not overly sweet, and really tasty.

I highly suggest trying it.

Please read!

So, I was wondering if I should start posting all of my meals. I usually don't post my meals, unless they're special in some way. But Should I start posting my everyday meals? I'd also like to know if anyone at all reads my blog,  so please comment.

"TuNori salad"

Let me just say first, that I LOVE Vegan Dad. His recipes, and blog are amazing, and I suggest you read them in your spare time. So today I decided to try his TuNori recipe, I had it on some Saltines, just the way I used to when I was a kid. I was a big tuna fan when I was little, and this is extremely close. The texture isn't close, but the taste certainly is. It's great. I was a bit worried at first that it wouldn't work out, and I wouldn't like it, but I ended up making three batches. (there were four of us eating it) So good.

So please, check out the recipe, and his blog.

(Photo from Vegan Dad's blog)

Have a great weekend!