Weekend Review…

By Monica on October 9th, 2007

Instead of using my long ‘holiday’ weekend to cook up new elaborate feasts, I opted to make several easy, snackie foods that we could eat whilst lounging on the couch catching up on movies. So much for productivity!

I always thought eggs were disgusting and would rarely eat them unless disguised in baked goods, so giving up eggs was a snap even though I have hens which lay the most gorgeous brown and blue eggs! Nevertheless, in my omni-days, about once a year I would make egg salad. This satisfies that craving quite well!

Your Basic Eggless Egg Salad
1 block extra firm tofu, dried well and crumbled
1 small red onion, finely diced
1 stalk celery, finely diced
3/4 cup Vegenaise
1/4 cup pickle relish
2T mustard
2t dried dill
1t taragon
pinch of cayenne pepper

Then we moved on to Jess’s Sick Soup, which is truly delicious. I omitted the mushrooms as usual, but added a handful of green beans and sugar snap peas. This is definitely a recipe I’ll make again, and it’s a great excuse to eat more crusty Italian bread (like I need an excuse, I’m a carb addict.)

And finally, blueberry pancakes. I always make too many pancakes, which I think are disgusting reheated, so the dogs typically get a breakfast treat on pancake day. They enjoyed the pancakes thoroughly!

Chick’n Taco Chili

By Monica on October 3rd, 2007

If every meal could be thrown into a crockpot and abandoned for several hours, life would be easier. Despite my affinity for the slow cooker, in the back of my mind I’m always afraid it’s going to burn the house down while it cooks away, unsupervised. Am I the only one?

1 onion, diced
1 15oz. can kidney beans, drained
1 15oz. can black beans, drained
1 15oz. can corn, drained
1 8oz. can tomato sauce
1 bottle of your favorite vegan beer
2 cups chopped tomatoes, fresh or canned
1 4oz. can green chilies
1 package Morningstar Farm Chick’n strips
1 package taco seasoning

Directions: Throw everything into the crockpot and cook on medium/high for 4-5 hours. Top with a dollop of vegan sour cream, soy cheese, tortilla chips, avocado, or your favorite taco fixin’s.

WTF is in this bag?!

By Monica on September 21st, 2007

Last week Ray found my vegetable stock bag in the freezer. It’s always fun trying to explain why you are hording tomato tops, celery stumps, and wilted carrots in the freezer whilst trying not to look like a crazy pack rat. But that’s exactly what I’m doing, pack-ratting old veggies, in a gallon sized freezer bag, because I am sick of paying $1.99/qt for vegetable stock. (It should maybe be noted that I tease my brother mercilessly for hording bits of steel and wood for fabricating things, but hording half rotted vegetable bits is perfectly acceptable.)

It’s really not that fascinating, but the veggies looked so gorgeous in the pot that I figured I’d snap a shot.

To a large freezer bag, I add pepper tops, celery stumps, tomato guts, squash ‘leavings, and any other left over vegetable parts. (Except veggies from the cabbage family; compost those!) When the bag is full, I throw them in a big pot, cover with water, add a handful of peppercorns, a little salt, and a few bay leaves. Simmer for a few hours, strain, and enjoy your free vegetable stock which kicks the pants out of store bought.

Tip: clean and resuse the aseptic cartons from stock or non-dairy milk for your stock.

Frenchie Onion Soup

By Monica on September 13th, 2007

Ray is sicky-poo this week and it’s been cooler outside, so I figured some soup was in order. I have 35 pounds of squash I could use to make soup, but instead I made Frenchie Onion Soup from La Dolce Vegan, again. I make this over and over again and have yet to get sick of it. I’ve made it 3 days in a row before. I think I may be addicted!

This time I made it with red onions because that’s what I had on hand, and topped it with Vegan Gourmet’s mozzarella. Start to finish on this is under 20 minutes, can’t beat that with a stick!