White Cake!

On vegweb, the issue came up about how to make a good vegan white cake. I've never had "issue" with any (vegan) cake, but some wanted a vanilla tasting cake that was dense but light in texture (not sure how that works.... its been too long since I've had "omni cake." Regardless, several of us have made it our mission to try to figure this mess out. My attempt, seen here, is the chocolate cake that works well, subbing cornstarch for the cocoa powder. It tasted good, but I don't think it is what they were looking for. THHF thought of using icewater and got good results; this is my next plan of attack. However, the cupcakes I made this weekend had a nice "dense fluffy" to them. Perhaps the trick is to MESS THEM UP.

Sweet Rice Salad

One of my favorite "its hot and I don't wanna eat!" dishes is cold rice salad. It's easy to make, doesn't' involve the oven, but still provides all the flavor and texture I like from more complex recipes. I have a basic "recipe" I use when making rice salads, but it's easy to sub in what you have or what you like. Essentially, this one is chopped veggies (celery, carrots, green onion) mixed with equal parts short grain brown rice, spelt, and brown lentils (all cooked first!). The dressing is raspberry balsamic vinegar (best_score_ever!), a little salt, and olive oil. After it sat in the fridge for a day, the raspberry flavor really came out in the grains. It was super good! Oh, and I like to add nuts to theses. This one had pecans. YUM! And currents. As you can see, I can't remember what I put in my foods most of the time. Good think I only buy vegan food, which makes everything I made vegan by default!

Summer Corn Soup

Today we had the Summer Corn Chowder (or whatever the whole name is) from Vcon. I don't know what made me think it was a good idea to make soup, since it was 10000 degrees out, but I did it anyways. Actually, this started with a fennel bulb I got in my weekly CSA box. I don't like fennel (or anything with a licorice taste) so I was looking for a recipe that might hide it well. This recipe did the trick! It was pretty quick and easy, seeing that I even got really badass and made my own broth in the pressure cooker. I was going to get fresh corn but it was mega pricey at the store (3 for 2 bucks!). So I said "screw that!" and used frozen. Yumm, corn. DR and Cammers were pleased, to say the least, as they sweated their way though a couple bowls of the stuff.

Raw Green Salad!

Another day that it was too hot to cook. I decided to clean out the veggie load from the CSA and make a big salad. Actually, DR wanted salad so I made one for her. And me. I was feeling a bit lazy.

Greens, zucchini, mushrooms, avocado, almonds and raw flax oil. The colors went well together.

Cold Noodles and Chard

This was a "cheater" recipe since I essentially took the Cold Udon Noodles from VWAV and stole the sauce recipe to adapt to what I had chilin' in my kitchen: buckwheat noodles, chard, and a mega lack of peanut butter. Cammers was coming over and I knew he had peanut butter so I told him to bring it with for dinner, since I was making noodles. He showed up with a jar of White Chocolate Wonderful. Great. I yelled at him. I managed to find a little spicy peanut butter to make this dish and it worked pretty well. DR confirmed her dislike of chard. I got dinner done.

Tofu Salsa Scramble

I figured out the fastest, easiest way to make tofu when you don't feel like cooking: scramble, add salsa, nooch. Heat and eat! So easy! So fast! Such a crown pleaser! But this time I went a big beyond this "easy" model and first fried up some hashbrowns, which added some potato goodness to the tofu scramble. DR was quite pleased by this, since she loves potatoes. I tossed a ripe avocado on top. I swear, for having few ingredients, this tasted fantastic! Much better than my crappy picture of it suggests. The avocado with the salsa-tofu.... totally yum.

Black Bean Sauce on Brocolli

Tonight Scoots and I decided to make DR a nice dinner for when she got home from work. She dislikes work, especially a) when she has a full day to work and b) she has to work the weekend.

As I worked on some dumplings, Scoots developed a black bean sauce that went on some broccoli. They were both quite pleased with this dish (I had a smoothie, since I wasn't feeling up to anything heavy), but I doubt it will come back again. If I remember right, the sauce is a can of beans, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, veggie broth, and ???? all blended together and dumped on some steamed broccoli.

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes

From Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. They are great. Just gaze at the porn-ness of them.

On a fantastic note, I did make that powdered sugar you see on top myself. Sugar, cornstarch, and my vitamix. I feel like I have mega vegan points now: +++++++ for me.

Roasted Mushrooms and Squash

Many might think it's stupid to turn the oven on in the middle of the summer, when its 80+ degrees out, but i just couldn't help but make some roasted veggies. Honestly, if you don't have AC, how much hotter can the oven make the house?

Here, I cut up mushrooms, squash, and a box of tofu, marinated it in oil and vinegar and then roasted them. Served them on top of some couscous. I've noticed that I've been couscous happy lately. I don't know why I started eating it, since I'm more of a grain vs. pasta type of kid. But i think my first introduction to couscous was by a former lover, and I think that story would be nice to share since most of my posts are just about sexy food things. Couscous is the remains of my sexy former lover, I guess.

Quick Veggie Bowl

One of the advantages of being vegan is that I tend to collect a lot of random veggies in the fridge. Every once in a while, it is time to clean out the fridge. Some might fret at this task. I just cook everything up and let DR have at them.

Here, I have some corn and kale, which had been hanging around for a bit and needed to be eaten. I also have some mushrooms (because those are always nice to eat). The CSA box gave us some nice little potatoes (DR's fav!) so I boiled those to add a little something special to the meal. Quick, easy, and DR approved.

Couscous and Greens

This was a really quick dinner I tossed together to use up some of the braising greens I found in my CSA box. Mushrooms and greens, lightly cooked in a little oil and vinegar and then tossed on top of some couscous. It doesn't get easier than that.

Grilled Veggie Pizza

Pizza. The way it was meant to be perhaps. Or not.

A lot of nonvegans wonder how it is possible to make a vegan pizza. Well, first, it is possible. Second, there are a lot of ways to go about making it. The first, and perhaps more "traditional" way, involves making it just like a "normal" pizza - get some vegan cheese, some vegan toppings, and go to town.

While that is good and all, there are times I just want something lighter and more wholesome. So enter this new pizza: grilled veggie pizza. I made some dough with chicky baby seasoning added (essentially, nooch and other spices). For the topping, I sliced zucchinis, mushrooms, and tomatoes and mixed them in a bowl with chopped olives, roasted red peppers, and fresh basil. Then I coated it all with a good splash of oil and baked it until the veggies were tender and the crust golden. It was, in all honesty, one of the best pizzas I've ever had.

Soyrizo Mac'n'Cheez-o

One of the new items that DR and I have been picking up at the store is Soyrizo, which is essentially a vegan spicy sauage product. It isn't firm and slicable like sausage but it more like really overcooked ground meat. Anyways, it's our new love.

I came up with this dish for dinner because we were hungry and I was feeling lazy. I remember I sent the recipe in to Vegweb, but sadly for you all, you will have to wait until it is posted to find out what exactly went on here. I remember pasta, corn, soyrizo, a can of diced tomatos. Beyond that, I'm not sure. It was a nice quick meal with yummy leftovers, so it might be worth it to keep an eye out for it.