Mmm... Brownies!

Tonight we were watching one of our favorite movies, EuroTrip, and I really wanted brownies!

Quick search for low-fat brownies and this is what I found: Ultimate Low Fat Brownie Cookies

Satisfied my craving and tasted delicious!  Now on to Clerks!

Vegan Banana Waffles

Hello out there!  Yes, I am still alive.   My life has gotten so hectic, I have neglected this blog yet again.  I've mostly been strictly cooking out of the McDougall Quick & Easy Cookbook, so I have been unable to post actual recipes here for a while, but I will try to post sporadically whenever I make something off the web or one of my own concoctions. 

Vegan Banana Waffles
(Don't mind the crappy cell phone pic)

I started with this recipe: Vegan Banana Waffles, but modified it slightly.  I used:

    1 3/4 cups nondairy milk
    1/2 cup coconut oil
    2 cups whole wheat flour   
    1 tablespoon brown sugar
    4 teaspoons baking powder
    1/2 teaspoon salt
    1 banana


Directions:

1. Preheat waffle iron according to manufacturer's directions.

2. Mix dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.  Add nondairy milk and coconut oil and mix. 

3. Mush ripe banana and add to mixture.  Beat on med-high with hand mixer until banana thoroughly blended.

4. Scoop batter into 2/3-1 measuring cup and pour into Belgium sized waffle iron (use less for regular waffle iron). Let cook for about 6-8 minutes, or according to directions (usually when the steam stops coming out from the edges). 

5. Remove waffles with a fork and let cool on wire rack. Serve with jam, maple syrup, or flavored agave nectar.

Makes 4 Belgium sized waffles
Preparation time: 10 min.
Cooking time: 6-8 min. per waffle

Breakfast Feast

Tofu Scramble, Home Fries, Toast, Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, Tea, and Orange Juice.

Dad's in town on a surprise visit and I really wanted to make him something special.  We ended up going out for lunch and dinner the last two days so I could show him the town and all our favorite places, so I made him breakfast before work today and went all out!

Breakfast included:

Tofu Scramble w/ Home Fries

Toast (Made with fresh bread using my new bread machine and this recipe - Simple Bread Machine Wheat Bread)

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins (Made the same except I used vegetable oil instead of Earth Balance)

Hope he liked it! 

Tofu Sandwich

I had some tofu in the fridge and saw this recipe in an e-mail from Peta and had to try it.

Recipe: $3 Dish of the Day: Grilled Tofu Sandwhich

I used the recipe for the tofu but added tomato and avocado to the sandwich instead with my fresh made bread!

I don't think I drained the tofu enough before pouring on the soy sauce because it probably only absorbed an 8th of what it called for.  Next time I will press my tofu before adding the sauce.  Also the soy sauce made this dish VERY salty, so maybe lighter on the sauce wouldn't be such a bad thing.

For $3, this meal gets an A!

Easy Vegan Wheat Bread

This was my first attempt making bread (well, mostly made by Chef Assistant Paul) and it turned out pretty good!

Recipe: Easy Vegan Wheat Bread

After finding out the bread I was eating might not be vegan, I just got sick of trying to find breads in stores and decided I was going to make my own.

I hope to buy a bread maker in the future and experiment with many different types of bread!

Spicy Chik'n Quesadillas

My Nikon's battery was dead, so I had to use the Droid cam.

We had some leftover chik'n from the homemade "Chipotle" and needed to use it before it was gone.  Without having all the "Chipotle" ingredients, I thought I would throw together some quesadillas.

Ingredients:
Wheat Tortillas
Vegan Cheddar (My favorite is Follow Your Heart Vegan Cheddar)
Chipotle style Chik'n
Saintly Black and Gold Salsa from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen
Salsa (I used Great Value Peach Pineapple Salsa)

Both the chik'n and Saintly Black and Gold Salsa were very spicy on their own, but combined in the tortilla, cheese, and salsa it wasn't too hot and turned out very well.  I would definitely make it again.

Verdict: 8/10

Hot Skillet Salad

I've never thought of salad as being a hot meal, but this was rather tasty!

I used this recipe: Hot Skillet Salad from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen

I found I did not have the balsamic vinegar for a dressing, so I made the Dijon dressing from the Good Seasons box and it worked out pretty well.  It was so good, I ate two servings... oops!  

Red Beans & Barley

Had a 7 hour work day today, and this crock pot recipe cooks for 7 hours, so I thought it would be a perfect day for it.

Recipe: WW Slow Cooker Red Beans and Barley

The recipe said not to stir until the cooking was done, but at the end some of the edges were burned and sticking to the crock pot.  I might try to stir at the last hour if able.

Verdict:  Good filling meal.  Really liking barley and it's taste and texture.

Bourbon Chik'n

My roommate has been craving bourbon chicken ever since he saw I bought bourbon for my Bourbon Baked Beans, so we decided to make a vegan version to try.

Ingredients:

2 packages Morningstar Meal Starters Chik'n Strips 

1-2 cup Broccoli Flouretts

1-2 cup Pea Pods

Sauce (we used this recipe for the sauce:Bourbon Chicken):

4 ounces soy sauce
½ cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ginger
2 tablespoons onion flakes
1/3 cup bourbon

Cook the Morningstar Chik'n to package instructions.  Mix all sauce ingredients together and marinade chik'n overnight in a ziploc bag or container.  Shake container a few times through out the day if you are able.

Bake chik'n and marinade in oven at 325º for 30-45 minutes, stirring or basting frequently.  Meanwhile, cook broccoli and peas in a frying pan with ½ water until softened.

Combine bourbon chik'n and veggies and serve over rice.

Verdict:  According to my roommate, chef assistant Paul, it was nothing like the mall bourbon chicken as the recipe said.  I enjoyed it, but probably wouldn't make it again for myself.  We may be experimenting with other bourbon chik'n recipes in the future.

Baked Ziti

This has to be my favorite thing I've made so far!  Maybe it was just because I was starving when I got home and had to wait an hour for it to be finished, but man was it tasty!

Recipe: Baked Ziti

I added a little more vegan mozzarella than requested, and it could have used a little more sauce.

Mediterranean Spinach and Couscous

After a long day of work and meetings, I wanted something fast.  This was super fast and easy and quite yummy!

Recipe: Mediterranean Spinach and Couscous

Great for when you're in a bind (probably took 10 minutes tops for prep and cooking) and need to use up almost two boxes of couscous!  :)

Banana Muffins & Banana Bread

While searching the vegan sites I came across this recipe.  Seeing how our bananas always ripen too fast, I thought this would be a good recipe to keep on hand!

Peta.org |  Banana Muffins

I used melted Earth Balance margarine instead of oil, and used Ghirardelli Chocolate Chips inside.  Since there wasn't a time listed in the recipe, I wasn't really keeping track, just testing it every so often.  I would guess the muffins were in about 20 minutes, but the bread was in about 50 with aluminum foil on top for the last 10.  All in all both turned out delish! 

Verdict: I give both versions an A. 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had a sweet tooth and while looking for vegan chocolates, this recipe came up and I decided to give it a shot.

I used the recipe located here: Happy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

We made a few trays, experimenting with times on each.  The first batch we did to the recipe turned out really doughy and uncooked.   I think the best recipe we left in two extra minutes on the bottom rack (6 minutes top rack, turned 180% and cooked 6 minutes, plus 2 additional minutes with an extra cookie sheet underneath it).

My oven seems to cook much faster than most recommend, so in adding more minutes I feel the timing on this recipe was way off.  Next time I will try some parchment paper underneath to stop the bottoms from burning, as a friend recommended. 

Verdict: Overall quite tasty, but need to experiment with cooking times.  Try them for yourself and let me know what works best for you!

Vegan Pizza Day

Today is Vegan Pizza Day, so it was only fitting we make some vegan pizza! 

I used this recipe to make the pizza.  Mmmm! Yummy! 

Pineapple & Green Pepper Pizza

Finally, a working oven and some new guests to try my pizza!

Pizza Dough - http://vegweb.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=96af27e894ae2fd4187eff3006107ebe&topic=8128.0

We changed up the way we made it a little again. We let the dough rise for 2 hours this time, it seemed to make it fluffier.

We put the oven at 450° and baked the pizza with Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella 'cheese' and sauce for 20 minutes. We put the pineapple in the oven separate for 5 minutes to dry it out a little because I was worried about the 'cheese' becoming runny like with the toaster oven pizza. With about 5 minutes to go we added the green peppers and pineapple to half the pizza. At the end it seemed the cheese was still a little sloppy, so we put the pizza back the oven on broil for 5 minutes to cook the 'cheese' a little more. This seemed to work really well, except the pizza was already cooked at this point so it cooked a little more than I would have liked. Next time we are going to try to cook the pizza for 15 minutes on bake, then put it on broil for the last 5 minutes.

I served to the pizza to my guests, Christy & Colin, and not only did they take one slice, but 3 each. Later on I was told Colin said he liked it so much he consider would making the recipe himself. It always makes me happy to hear people like new vegan foods, especially ones I (and my roommate Paul) made.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pancakes

Yum! I have a friend in town and wanted to make her some of my favorite vegan meals! This is by far my favorite breakfast: Vegan Pancakes (click for recipe) with Peanut Butter & Co's Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter.

Day 7: One Week Vegan & Toaster Oven Pizza

The oven finally got looked at today, but won't have a part until Monday, so yet again, I had to improvise.

I have made the vegan pizza before using the same recipe and it's always turned out wonderful! Cooking it in the toaster oven, it didn't turn out quite as well, but was still a tasty pizza none the less!

I used this recipe for the dough: http://vegweb.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=96af27e894ae2fd4187eff3006107ebe&topic=8128.0
This recipe is GREAT, but instead of cooking it at 500°, we cook it at 450° for about 20 minutes. It also works great for bread sticks.

The sauce is a special recipe made by my roommate, Paul, but you can use any recipe for pizza or pasta sauce you would like.

I used Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella. It melts nice and tastes really good! Mmmm.

For this pizza I added pineapple chunks and raw green peppers cut into pieces both that I added after it was cooked. Only problem with adding the pineapple right after it comes out of the oven was the juices made the cheez runny before it fully set. So might want to wait a few minutes until it hardens, or squeeze the pineapples dry. Still yummy even runny!

Day 6: Pancakes & Getting creative with Toaster Ovens

Back to making interesting foods again!

Breakfast: This morning I made some very tasty Vegan Pancakes! I used the recipe below:

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/breakfastrecipe1/r/veganpancakes.htm

The pancakes cooked very well, but I put it on a little lower of a temperature for a little longer so it didn't brown as much.

After watching Cory eat his pancakes with peanut butter, I had an idea: Adding Peanut Butter & Co's Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter and making a pancake sandwich! It reminded me of a place I loved in North Carolina called Stack 'em High. My new favorite breakfast!


Lunch: A bit of leftover Tofu Scramble

Dinner: For dinner it was time to get creative. I had a recipe for 'cheesy' enchiladas, but realized I used the last of the nutritional yeast on the tofu scramble. So instead I mixed a few different enchilada recipes I had.

I used this recipe to make refried black beans http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=20765.0

For the enchiladas I used:
1/3 cup tomato & green chilies
2 cups instant mashed potatoes, cooked
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
Refried black beans from previous recipe
1 10oz can enchilada sauce
4 tortillas

Seeing as my oven still does not work, I had to use the toasted oven. I used a 6x6in (I think that's what it is) pan and covered the bottom lightly with enchilada sauce. Mix the mashed potatoes, corn, and tomato & green chilies together. Spoon on an even amount of the potato mixture and the refried beans onto a tortilla and wrapped it up, placing it in the pan. Repeat 3 more times to fill the pan and pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over the burritos (I could have used another can of enchilada sauce, but apparently I only bought one instead of 2). Place the pan in the oven (or toaster oven in this case) and bake at 350° for 30 minutes.

For a toaster oven meal, it turned out pretty well and still one leftover for lunch tomorrow. Hoping to hear about the oven soon, but the toaster oven works well in a pinch.

Day 3: Black Bean Burgers

Another lazy morning/afternoon with quick and easy and leftovers.

Breakfast: Great Value Rice Chex and Silk Original Almond Milk

Lunch: Leftover Mac & Cheez... mmm! I was craving it so bad I went to the store JUST to get elbow noodles to use the leftover 'cheez'. One of my new favs!

Dinner: For dinner I attempted to make Black Bean Burgers from scratch. I used this recipe:

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/01/hash-browns-and-black-bean-burgers.html

However in my hurried cooking for a hungry hubby, I used a whole green pepper instead of half and forgot to add the rice. For missing and too many ingredients, it didn't turn out too terrible. In it's current state, not one of my favorites, but we'll have to see how it goes when it is cooked correctly!