Posts Tagged ‘Cooking’

Wonder of it All!

Here is an super helpful site to click and create Vegan Loafs! -- Amazing!

Glad Cow Report

The Oven Quinoa Risotto with spinach is an excellent risotto recipe and is delicious.

It is incredibly easy to prepare and a great dish to "do ahead." You prepare it in one pan and mix and bake for 40 minutes. While it's baking you could be getting ready for work or doing other dishes to go with it.

The Basic Scone Recipe is a little tricky, plus it calls for non-hydorgenated shortening that is not always easy to find. It also tells you decide on the extract and spices to use. Also, directions say to press the dough into a circle and cut it into 8 pieces, which are huge. You may wish to half the dough, then press and cut each half into 8 pieces.

Vegan baking can be fun, yet it can be "fatting" so, bake away and give away is my motto.

Another incredible Gladcow recipe is the Maple Mustard BBQ sauce. You could use it as a tofu marinade, then bake the tofu, use it with white beans for bbq beans or use it with seitan and make a bbq sandwich.

Other recipes suggested are the Not Curry and GGBs Oatmeal Cookies. It will take a long time to try all the yummy recipes in this cookbook!

I’m Two for Two

As you extend your time becoming vegan, you will find that many non-vegans will tell you that they could Never be vegan. Yet, it may surprise you that anyone can become vegan -- even those who think they do not want to cook more, love fast food, or cheese or meat. It is amazing how you can reproduce your very favorite dishes, make them taste almost identical to the non-vegan dish -- maybe even taste better.

For example, for grilled cheese lovers -- try Tofutti cheese between that bread you're making (see 365 list).

In Sarah Kramer's Vegan A Go Go cookbook there is an excellen fettuccini alfredo even your non-vegan family and / or guests will love. It is very deliciously creamy (easily created with cashews and pine nuts).

Learning to cook as a vegan you will find that the flavors in dishes many times can depend on the spices -- not the dairy or meat.

It is quite incredible to be able to continue enjoying flavors and dishes that you love and still stick to a vegan diet!

The Sunday Report

For many people, they make Sunday their "cook" day. Many times you can have the kitchen to yourself and you can take your time putting together yummy vegan dishes for the week.

A good dish to make is no-chicken soup, especially if it is cold outside. No-chicken soup is very easy if you use no-chicken Better than Bouillon. Simply cut up carrots, celery, onions add pasta or brown rice.

Another good soup recipe is the Roasted Carrot Coconut soup from Sarah Kramer's Vegan A Go-Go cookbook. It is very good. It tastes a lot like a Thai curry sauce and can probably be useful with stir fried vegetables.

One thing you do need is a good food chopper like a Vita Mix and herb mincer to make the soup smoother.

Sarah Kramer's Vegan A Go Go cookbook is amazing with top notch vegan recipes!

Wild Hair Strikes Again

After making seitan, you may find it a bit salty. You can rinse it well before putting it up.

Seitan gives you a nice chewy texture and can be thought of as "hearty" or filling. Others who are not vegan may be put aback by it's appearance though -- it does look somewhat unappealing.

Sometimes when you are vegan, you crave some of your favorite non-vegan meals. This is when beef flavored seitan can come in handy. You can make goulashes, and italian dishes that call for beef and replace it with seitan (the beef that is). Using it for goulashes or italian dishes can cover up it's kind of "ugly" appearance too.

You may get a "wild hair" and begin making regular recipes into vegan recipes by replacing non-vegan foods with vegan ones that are in the recipes. Sometimes, this is very easy to do and you can bring back some of those dishes that were not vegan.

And, another "wild hair" is when you may Not have all the ingredients for a recipe. Many times you do not Need every single spice that is called for, etc. So go ahead and make that recipe.

I Serve Seitan

Making seitan from scratch is quite interesting. Below is a video of someone doing so.

If I had an hd video camcorder I would have filmed it myself --starting with gathering ingredients, to mixing to kneading to boiling.

Seitan is a vegan food that vegans may want to try, yet may have a hard time finding. Recipes that use it can be somewhat complex too.

There is a basic instant gluetn recipe in Sarah Kramer's book, Vegan A Go Go. It calls for vital wheat gluten, which you can find in some Publix supermarkets.

You may wish to schedule a time to make it -- it can be involving.

You will really be proud of yourself once you make it (and it turns out okay LOL). It is a good indication that you are on the expert road to being vegan when you make seitan.

As you incorporate more and more vegan recipes into your meals and life, one day you will realize that your pantry is finally getting stocked with vegan staples. How great it will be when you look at a recipe and realize you actually have all the ingredients!

Vegan Christmas

When it's Christmas and you are Vegan, you may want to do a little pre-planning.

You can order a Torfurky from Vegan Essentials after Thanksgiving and then a start planning a Vegan Christmas menu.

Many times you can stick with traditional dishes like Brussels Sprouts, mashed potatoes, and the Tofurky. You could make Lemon Pie and Pumpkin Pie for dessert.

You might be a little nervous if you don't think you are a good cook and I you don't want your family and/or guests to be disappointed with the food.

With the Tofurky, you can use a crock-pot using this recipe from the website. You can even put in carrots, potatoes and onions.

You can steam the brussel sprouts or even roast them with a bit of honey. Use organic potatoes, boil till soft then mash.

Your family / guests will probably LOVE it and want the recipes. These foods are great for people with health or weight isuues.

You may be doing a lot cooking for Christmas week and have a lot of leftovers -- probably no need to go the supermarket.

A new project to consider could be Vegan Entertaining. -- like for the Sugar Bowl. You'll want to wow them with vegan food. Have suggestions?