Recycling Food

Since I've been laid off, I've been more conscious of not wasting food...I know, I should have been doing that all along- hey, better late then never.

Here we have a photo of nothing being recycled- At the top of the plate we have fresh asparagus, from the garden, just sauteed in a little olive oil with red pepper-oh and of course garlic. The bottom left I made meatloaf - this recipe is from Vegan Vittles- Better Burger recipe on page 106. I kick it up a notch and add some finely chopped walnuts, chopped onion and peppers - form it into a loaf and bake- it's lovely every time. The potatoes are Vegan Yum Yum's Potato Salad with Herbed Dijon Vinaigrette and were they ever yum yum. I didn't have the fresh parsley so my garden grown, but dehydrated parsley had to do.

So now onto the recycling the food....
What I do with the leftover meatloaf....no pic, sorry, but I crumble it up and use it in spaghetti sauce. When we had it this time I used jarred sauce - Muir Glenn. I found a pack of three jars for like $5 at Costco, so I buy that all the time. This time I doctored it up with some roasted red pepper and sauteed onion and loads of garlic...you know to keep the vampires away.

I've been trying to use stuff up in our pantry that I've bought in the past on the fly, because they looked interesting- here is one of them...

OH- what can I do with that? I have you in suspense huh? Well I made this mess-What kind of mess is that you ask?? Well it's a recycled mess! The stuffing is Vegan Yum Yum's mustardy potatoes, fried up with leftover veggies from the fridge - broccoli, spinach, peppers, onions. Topped that with the Bengal Lentil's....here's a nutter photo minus the white goop that is on it in the above photo.....

What is the white goop you ask??? Well it is a previous batch of botched up Buffalo Mostarella Cheese from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook - my batch ultimately failed, it didn't solidify...it was more of a sauce- definitely yummy though....so we've been as a sauce as we desired- Freezes great- so no waste!

And they wrap you ask???? It's not what I tried to make before that failed....It's just simple garbanzo bean wrap recipe.....

1 cup of garbanzo bean flour

1 cup of water

your seasonings of choice- like I used
italian seasoning
garlic powder
garlic onion
ground pepper

Mix all together and let set for a half hour. To cook, lightly - and I mean lightly, spray a frying pan with oil (I found if you use too much the "pancake" will stick). Pour some batter into hot pan, flip with lightly brown...cook the other side (dahhhh). This is where it gets tricky - now flip the pan and make the "pancake" flip into the air and catch it on a plate...this is a crucial element in the recipe, the extra air gives it some extra fluffiness. I'm guessing people, that you figured out that I'm also giving you extra B.S. too, that last bit of instruction is totally optional- cool, but optional.

Now you ask....(you ask a lot of questions) "Do the wraps stay together when you pick it up to eat that mess????" Well technically, no, they fall apart after a couple of bites- but they look cool for the photo, and most importantly the whole concoction taste good together - SO USE YOUR FORKS PEOPLE!

All food was rated 5 out of 5 forks

Okay- enough questions from you'all today....I'm out.

Plan ol' good Veggin food

I've been craving French Toast for ages. None of the recipes that I came across really didn't seem appealing to me....but then I found this one!
Dreena's Fantastic French Toast! And that it is fantastic.

So on Sunday, after my 4 mile run OUTSIDE- OUTSIDE IN THE FRESH AIR, NO SNOW, SIDEWALKS CLEARED, - did I mention- OUTSIDE???? And can I mention that I ran 4 miles Saturday OUTSIDE...and now I will mention that I had to run on the treadmill, inside this morning because we got snow over night...okay, so anyway, Sunday I made the french toast.

Here is my naked french toast ~ before the maple syrup.

Recipe from her website (link above too)~

1 cup vanilla non-dairy milk
(note: I only have plain soymilk - I used that plus 1/2 tsp of vanilla)
2 tbsp flax meal
1⁄2 cup silken firm tofu
1⁄4 tsp cinnamon
1⁄8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1⁄8 tsp sea salt
1 tsp canola oil

8 - 9 slices bread of choice

2 - 3 tsp canola oil (or more, if needed, for frying)

Using a hand blender or in a blender (used this), purée the non-dairy milk, flax meal, tofu, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and canola oil until very smooth and thick (it will get thicker as it sits a little while and the flax absorbs some of the liquid).

Dip a slice of bread in the batter. Turn over and let it sit for a few moments to soak, then remove and place on a plate until ready to fry. In a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat, add the canola oil when hot and reduce heat to low/medium-low. Fry bread for 4-6 minutes on each side, until lightly brown (try to flip only once so that the batter will set and brown nicely on the bread).
Serve with pure maple syrup.

Goods said that now he expects it every weekend. And don't we know "expecting" and it "happening" are two totally different things.

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Sunday we invited a friend (LM) over that has been spending a lot of his time traveling and staying in hotels for business...thought maybe he could use some good VEGAN food (or as LM says ~ Veggin)

Premeal (no pics)-
**Horseradish "Cheese"with crackers ("Vegan Vittles" recipe for crock cheese with horseradish added)
** Hummus and veggies

Main Grub-
**Garden Salad

**Freshly baked Light Oat Bread from Allrecipes.com~

INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 cups water
2 tablespoons margarine
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

DIRECTIONS
Add ingredients to bread machine pan in order recommended by your manufacturer. Use regular light setting.

This is awesome bread - so light and fluffy; I've made it before and will make in many times again.

**Fettuccine Alfredo with Veggies ~ recipe to follow

Here is my plate - kind of messy

LM couldn't believe that I was taking a photo of him eating.....

But Goods was all nonchalant about it, reassuring LM that it's okay, I do it all the time and that the photo will only end up on my blog.

LM stated that this was the best thing I ever made him....a tear came to my eye. But here is the recipe I concocted for the Veggie Fettuccine Alfredo

The Sauce-

Blend together with emulsion blender or other blender:
1 container of Tofutti Cream Cheese
½ c. firm Tofu
4 Tbs. of Earth Balance
1 C. Rice Milk
2 Tbs. Nutritional Yeast
1 Tbs. Dried Parsley
1 tsp. Sea Salt
1/4-1/2 C. of Vegan Parmesan Cheese
Fresh Ground Pepper to taste

Put in medium sauce pan.

Add one bulb of roasted garlic (we LOVE garlic)

Heat thoroughly. It's ready to use!

Veggies for in the pasta - I used asparagus, onion, carrots, artichoke, broccoli and roasted red pepper (homemade). Cook in a little olive oil until desired doneness.

Cook one package of Fettuccine (actually I didn't mix about 1 c. of cooked fettuccine upon assembling). Drain and rinse. Mix the noodles, veggies and sauce. TA-DA- Done.

**Dessert~
Vanilla Soy Ice Cream (homemade) with Carmel Sauce (from "Vegan Ice Cream Paradise" website) if you had room, they did, I didn't. I screwed up the Carmel Sauce because I apparently can't read directions...but the boys assured me that it was really good.

The Vanilla Ice Cream is just a variation of my new found ice cream formula-

2 C. Soy Creamer
(I think french vanilla creamer would be good here- next time!)
1/4 C. Powdered Soy Milk
4 oz. Tofutti Cream Cheese
1/2 C. Sugar
3 tsp. Vanilla
Chill above mixture, if you have time. In ice cream maker, put the “cream” mixture in and cycle for approx 30 minutes.

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That about wraps up my food production. I've been doing a lot of crafting - mosaic-ing anything that doesn't move....but I'll save that for another post. 'Till then - I'm out.

I Faked it this Weekend....

.....with fake sausage patties - Chickpea Sausage Patties to be exact. This recipe I found on the blog "EATAIR" . These were beyond yummy! And for once I followed the recipe and the only thing I would do differently next time is to double the recipe. 5 out of 5 forks on these. I'm dreaming of "Vegan McMuffins" as I type this. These patties would be perfect for that...but I served them with baked butternut squash and asparagus.

Then I made some balls....

...for pasta & balls. I use the "BETTER BURGER" recipe from "Vegan Vittles" and make them into balls. I usually double the recipe so I have extras to freeze. This time I change the recipe a tad...instead of 2 cups of TVP (in the double recipe) I used 1 1/2 cups of TVP and 1/2 c. of ground walnuts. I very much like the change, it added more flavor and they weren't as "gooey".

....and some baked seiten. I confess, I made them a while ago, in fact I've made a couple of times. This recipe is from "Veganomicon" - since everyone now has made the Chickpea Cutlets**, the Baked Seiten Cutlet recipe is the recipe before it.

Here's a photo before going into the oven.....

And the finished product.....

As stated, I've made these a couple of times. The second time I made them, I thought I screwed up with the wheat gluten and the "dough" was extremely a stringy glob mess- and of course I doubled the recipe. So I put that aside, and made another, single batch, better, but still had stringy globs in it. Well, I decided not to waste anything and cooked all 3 batches. They ended up turning out great- taste wise, just not as pretty as the above photos. Oh, and I save the broth from the baking process (freezer) to use again to make these...no need to waste. The cutlets were moist and tender with less mess then the boil method.

I really need to perfect my wheat gluten technique; I have issues of getting distracted and I think the problem arises when I don't mix immediately upon adding the wet ingredients. Or maybe I pour the wet ingredients in too quickly and not evenly. Any one has hints, pretty please let me know. The seiten was great as a substitute for the tofu in my lettuce wraps (April 13, 2007 post).

**Okay, don't totally BOO me, but the Chickpea Cutlets from "Veganomicon" were just okay for me. Goods even agreed with me. I do think they are a great base to work with. Sorry if I offend anyone.

The next new fake meat I'm going to make is Corned Beef from the blog- Everyday Dish. Yummy??? I'll let you know.