"Whole lotta bakin' goin' on!"

I will be out of town for a few days, so I made a ton of food for my partner to eat. Mostly I did this so he doesn't have to spend money on eating out ;)

I decided a pan of veggie filled lasagna was in order. (sorry for the poor pictures, at night my camera gives everything a nice seventies glow)




No recipe here... just cooked lasagna noodles, tomato sauce spiked with extra garlic, tofu ricotta from Veganomicon, sauteed veggies (spinach, onion, zucchini, broccoli, green peppers) and topped with some nutritional yeast.

I made more blueberry muffins (same as the ones in the last post!)


I used this vegweb recipe (www.vegweb.com) :

Very Simple Blueberry Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup nondairy milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffin pan (optional).
In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir in nondairy milk and oil.
Fold in blueberries. Pour into baking cups and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
Makes: about 8 muffins

I generally use water instead of milk and they still come out yummy.

Next I made a couple of breakfast burritos:


Pinto beans, tofu scramble, avocado, salsa, homemade cheezy sauce.

For dinners I also made a huge batch of fried rice and sesame broccoli:


Cashew fried rice with seitan and tofu 'egg', broccoli with sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds.

Since I'm visiting my parents for the holidays but not staying for xmas celebrations, I will be bringing a little gift for their table: pumpkin walnut bread with dried cran-cherries


I got the recipe from here:
http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2009/11/vegan-pumpkin-walnut-bread/

It's easy, yummy and very pantry friendly too!

And some seitan sandwiches for lunches:

These have seitan seasoned with steak sauce, grilled onion, vegan mayo and dijon horseradish mustard.

Phew!

Off to the Olympic Peninsula tomorrow bright and early, hopefully I will find some decent food!

Living on crumbs, black coffee and free wifi...

Hopefully this post isn't too much of a downer, I just need to vent! :) At least there are MUFFINS!



Well, it's been a rocky past couple of months and apparently that isn't going to change with the coming New Year. I'm not the only American who is struggling with the economic woes of the times, but damn it's frustrating!

After being layed off at the end of the summer, I found a job promising part/full time rather than accepting unemployment money. This has actually ended up being 16 to 20 hours a week...I'm trying to find another job but it's almost more difficult *because* I have a part time job already. I can't afford to quit and then look for one, so it's really become quite the chess game.

Living paycheck to paycheck in a city with one of the highest unemployment rates, previously thinking at any point I could go back to school and get a career...I have to say I'm getting a bit nervous!!!

One thing is for certain though, I will be sticking with my vegan diet. Anybody who thinks it's too expensive is a naysayer!
I can't afford organic everything or prepackaged Tofurky and the like, but I can eat quite satisfactorily I think on a very tight budget.

Here's something cheap and filling I had this morning:

Peaches and Cream Oatmeal with Cinnamon and Brown Sugar:




Oatmeal with frozen peaches, cinnamon, brown sugar and almond milk.



So I guess you will see some new directions for this blog with the new year:
THRIFTINESS
BUDGETING
MAKING-DO

I'm trying to budget all meals for two people for each month on $225 (hopefully less).
It will be an interesting if only necessary challenge. I'll probably be looking into homemade stuff more too (such as soaps, etc), so stay tuned!

In the meantime...would you like a muffin?

Biscuits and Gravy!

Whoops...I overcooked the biscuits I was going to eat with jam. Since I only like really good fluffy biscuits by themselves, I decided I would just make some gravy to pour on them!



The biscuit recipe is veganized from Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook (just use EB instead of butter). The gravy is basically any normal non-vegan recipe with soymilk instead of cow. MMM!

I leave you with this 'hit' song of some friends of mine. They are called Robot Pi and made this awesome Biscuits and Gravy song!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8Th2oNHN38

Ranch Bake

Finally recovering from mofo and thanksgiving.....I wanted to share what I made for dinner tonight!

I found this recipe on VegWeb: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=21952.0
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=21952.0

The recipe has a lot of prepackaged stuff in it, but I made my own ranch and seitan so it wasn't expensive to make at all! I did make a few changes (of course). I didn't presoak the bacon bits, I subbed about 3/4 cup homemade seitan for the lightlife chick'n and I omitted the vegan cheese. I just added a little more ranch sauce.

Here it is right out of the oven:


Hit the spot on a chilly rainy day....


The ranch sauce is something I modified from an older recipe. It's not a perfect substitute, but it works for me and it's mostly easy pantry ingredients. I can't remember where it came from. Here's my (approximate) measurements.

Vegan Ranch
1 TBSP vinegar (apple cider or red wine)
1/2 cup non-dairy milk
1/3 cup vegan mayo
1 TSP onion powder
1/2 TSP garlic
1/2 TSP dill
1/4 TSP black pepper
1/2 TSP thyme
2 TSP nutritional yeast

Blend until well-mixed.


One thing I liked about this ranch bake recipe was the dough! I can see it coming in handy for making all kinds of wrapped-and-baked stuff. It's quick and easy to make, and tastes great. MMMM!

LAST MOFO!

Well I kinda crapped out on the mofoing as often as possible...but I promise you I have been cooking and eating delicious foods!

First up, a yummy grilled cheeze made of Daiya and Dave's Killer Bread (BEST BREAD EVER) perched on some Amy's tomato soup.



I made a tasty beef-style stew loosely (very loosely) based on this vegweb recipe:
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=24104.0
but I used soy curls and added wine, steak sauce and nutritional yeast.




I also made Robin Robertson's recipe for Wheatballs out of Vegan on the Cheap (which I really want!). I found the recipe here:
http://www.nomeatathlete.com/wheatball-subs/
This was the only survivor...


And I made a butternut squash lasagna with chicken style soy curls, cashew based white sauce and spinach. I really just threw it all together and it turned out decent, but could definitely be improved upon next time.



I'm a little sad mofo is over, but happy to have found so many great new blogs to follow!

MOFO

Catch-up time! I haven't blogged for a few days, things have been hectic. Currently waiting for the weather to make it's damn mind up about snowing so we can either travel or not travel for Thanksgiving!

In penance I offer this cookie:



It's a recipe by Dreena Burton that I really love but don't make all that often because it calls for 1/3 cup maple syrup which frankly isn't in the budget that often. Here is where you can get the RECIPE and watch Dreena make them!
http://www.everydaydish.tv/index.php?page=recipe&recipe=86

Also, Vegan Vittles has a recipe for extended maple syrup that is quite helpful! Some google sleuthing will find it ;)


---------------------------------------!!!HOT TODDY ALERT!!!------------------------
I made hot toddies recently since it has been very chilly here especially at night. Usually these are made with honey but if you're adverse like me, agave works great as does some simple syrup or just sugar if the liquid is hot enough to dissolve it well.

You can find a recipe online easily but you can improvise. Just taste test as you go!

I like a bit of orange zest in mine....This time I used a clementine. Cute!

Gimme some sugah!

Nutmeg and cinnamon...spicy!

Freshly grated is the best!

Lovely lemon:

The magic elixir:

Throw it in a teapot with boiling water so you can top it off when it starts to cool down!

......aaaaaaand then forget to take a picture when you are done! ;)
Here's an action shot.. Not too pretty, but very warming!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today I made some burritos (wraps?) that had BBQ glazed sweet potato, black beans, jasmine rice,chili powder and avocado, YUMMY!!!



MMMMMM!!!


Where burritos go to die:


Send anti-snow thoughts my way, people!!!

Mofo #18..Thanksgiving planning...

The time has come to finalize my plans for Thanksgiving...I'm going grocery shopping tomorrow and will likely be picking up ingredients for the week.
We will be driving 4 hours to my parents' house. Previously we had made do with side dishes...(requesting a couple of potatoes to be left aside to mash with earth balance, buying our own salad dressing and gravy, etc)

BUT NOT THIS YEAR!

I want to make a feast that makes the rest of my skeptical family envious!

MAIN COURSE
I toyed with the idea of an autumnal Shepard's pie but ultimately I think I'm going with something I have made before and is mostly turkey-ish: Bryanna Clark Grogan's turkey style seitan. It's my go-to recipe and it can be seasoned very similarly to turkey. Plus I know that it reheats well so I can make it ahead of time! YES!



The recipe doesn't seem to be on her website anymore...however she does have a whole page of Thanksgiving recipes(including slow cooker and low-fat) that look great!!


SIDE DISHES
-Definitely need a green bean dish and rather than the boring old green bean casserole, I will probably do something like this:
http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/2010/07/green-beans-with-bacon-balsamic.html
But obviously tempeh bacon or maybe even bacon bits in place of the actual bacon...

-As for the potatoes...I may actually just do with plain ol' mashers and maybe some roasted garlic and chives thrown in

-With the potatoes we will definitely have gravy. My favorite is mushroom gravy but my partner DETESTS MUSHROOMS.
I've made this one from Vegan Vittles before and upped the poultry spices and soy sauce...it was pretty good. And its really only pantry ingredients so that's a plus for travelling and my wallet.



-Probably some greenage...sauteed kale most likely.

-Stuffing is actually something I usually make from a pre-mix...horrible I know. But it's so convenient! This year I want to try making my own. This might require a test run though...
This one from Terry Hope Romero looks pretty dang good

This one looks alright too as long as I use a different gravy

IF ANYBODY HAS A KICK ASS STUFFING RECIPE LET ME KNOW!

-And we'll have cranberry sauce of course...cranberries, sugar, spices...Boil it up and DONE


DESSERT
I'm probably going to make FFV's pumpkin cheesecake...although I've never made it before..it doesn't look too tough, right?!



Probably whip up an tofu-spinach-onion dip and do some spiced olives for appetizers but here's hoping it goes well!

Mofo 17

Weekly pasta dish post ;)

A simple dish of rotini and a lentil tomato sauce. The sauce has sauteed red onion, red pepper, garlic, french lentils, red pepper flakes, nooch, and canned tomatoes.


Pumpkin bread pudding for dessert from a few days ago, this time complete with sauce! I made a bastardized version of caramel sauce and a cashew based 'whipped' cream. The whipped cream recipe was from VegWeb and I was pretty unimpressed...it was kind of funky tasting...Anybody have a good recipe out there?
Oh well, I just dumped extra caramel sauce on it, heh heh...

THANKSGIVING FREAK-OUT

AAAAAAAAAAGH I just realized I will be cooking a ton of food amongst my crazy omni family in an unfamiliar oven in 9 days!!!!*





*real mofo post for today to come later...after the freakout is over :[

MOFO the 14th

Making diner a little early tonight as I'm off to work soon... I opted for the Leek and Bean Cassoulet from Veganomicon as it's perfect cheap winter food.



I can never seem to follow a recipe exactly as written...Here I modified a few things. I used whole wheat pastry flour (and added nooch) for the biscuits instead of AP. I also added cabbage, squash and extra garlic to the stew part.
I garnished it with the cute flower that my garlic chive plant made...thanks plant!



Overflow....


Also, since I had a little leftover pumpkin and an old baguette I thought I'd throw together a quick bread pudding. (I'm scrambling to take the photo here cause I'm also trying to put the cassoulet biscuits together so sorry that it looks crappy, haha)


I do plan to make a cream of sorts and a caramel topping for this later tonight but I couldn't wait to try it right away!!! I scooped some out piping hot and added a few chocolate chips to melt into it...pretty good for an on the fly/leftovers recipe.
Bread puddings are awesome for that, you can make endless variations.