Veggie Pizza

 

Armed with the Daiya cheese we bought at Food Fight!, we made some awesomely tasty pizza the other night. I used the pizza crust recipe from the side of a Bob's Red Mill flour bag, and changed it up by adding some dried basil and garlic powder (and a little extra salt, plus some pepper). This makes a really great crust, and takes only a few minutes to knead by hand. Which is, admittedly, not exactly my favorite part about making pizza dough...

Toppings included:

chanterelle mushrooms (I think we actually live off of these things lately)

yellow pear tomatoes from the garden

green onions

dried olives (canned black olives put into a food dehydrator... adds less moisture to the pizza)

Yves fake chicken strips

peppers from the garden

Instead of traditional tomato sauce, I simply smeared the dough with some pesto and olive oil. Yum!

The cheese was pretty good. It doesn't taste that much like dairy cheese, but it melts well and adds a creaminess to the pizza.

Chocolate Chip Banana Pancakes/Lame Update

Sorry, no pictures this time!

These pancakes were literally so good that we didn't even spare a thought to snapping some photos. The recipe came from Vegan Cooking, and I was a little skeptical at first. I'd never had one--chocolate and banana, in a pancake? What?--but these were so awesome. With a side of hashbrowns and some faux sausages, this made a good dinner, and would make a good breakfast too.

A little backstory: we got the chocolate bar (I chopped it into chunks for the "chips"), Rice Dream brand I think, at Food Fight! in Portland. Nice store! I'd seen it before when Mr. S and I went to the Red and Black Cafe, but hadn't gone inside. So, we made a special side trip after picking up some cases of beer at the Rogue Brewery garage sale. It's pretty relaxing to go inside a store and not have to continually scan labels for non-vegan ingredients.

We also got some Daiya mozzarella cheese. I'm thinking... pizza. Like, soon.

Veggie Burgers and Brownies!

Last night was burger night. Since Vegan Cooking didn't have the proper recipe, I surfed online and found this recipe for mushroom burgers. The recipe was, initially, a total fail. The resulting mixture was much too moist and resulted in a patty that fell apart in the pan and was very gooey inside. Besides, we burnt it a little. Check it out...

So, Mr. S added almost 1/2 C of whole-wheat flour to the mix, which helped astronomically. The patties kept their shape during cooking and the inside wasn't as gooey as the first. Topped with some vegan cheese slices, onion, avocado and lettuce, a delicious burger was born.

A side of sweet potato fries made it awesome, as well.




Making dinner last night involved a little music, too. We rocked out to Journey (here's Pear watching the video for Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)). Best. Song. Ever. From Journey, that is.

We also listened to one of my new favorites.

Because, baby girl, you shock me like an electric eel.

After our burgers, we enjoyed some delicious brownies. Now, I must admit these were not vegan. I found two (somewhat) forgotten eggs in the 'fridge, nearing their expiration date. So, they got made into these. The next time, I'm going to try them with some egg replacer we got yesterday. I did veganize the frosting by using vegan butter and agave nectar instead of honey. Probably some of best frosting I've had in a long time.

Roasted Cauliflower Curry Soup

Yesterday, since we had no leftovers from the night before, I whipped up a quick soup for lunch. The creaminess comes from using coconut milk and from sending some of the mixture through a food mill to puree it. Random comments about food mills: I really like mine. No electricity needed, and it works awesome for making perfectly smooth tomato sauce and mashed potatoes.

To make the soup, first roast some veggies! For soup for two, I cut up 1/2 head of cauliflower and 2 medium potatoes into med-size chunks, then placed them on a oiled pizza pan, along with a few large cloves of unpeeled garlic. I roasted them in a 400 F oven for about 30 minutes.

While this was happening, I combined 2 cups of vegetable broth with 1 can of coconut milk and brought it to a simmer, and added maybe 2 teaspoons of yellow curry powder (dry). Once the veggies were done roasting, I roughly chopped them into small pieces and added them to the simmering liquid. I squeezed the garlic out of the skins and added those to the pan, too. After boiling the soup for about 30 minutes, I sent a few cups through the food mill and added it back to the pot. Voila!

Sesame Broccoli "Beef" with Fried Rice

 

A couple nights ago I decided to use some Yves' faux beef strips to make this classic Chinese-inspired dish. The "beef" pieces tasted pretty good! Not as chewy as real beef, but very similar. With a very flavorful sesame-ginger sauce, the dish made a great complement to some vegetable fried rice I made.

For the sauce, I made up my own recipe:

1/2 C veg broth

3 TB soy sauce

2 TB oil

1 TB cornstarch

1 TB rice vinegar

1 TB mustard powder

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

1/2 tsp chili oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2" ginger, minced

Combine ingredients into a bowl, then pour over broccoli and faux meat in saute pan, frying over med heat until broccoli is tender. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. The mixture is very strongly flavored, so it goes a long way.

For fried rice, I cook the rice in our rice maker with 1/2 veg broth and 1/2 water. Then, I briefly saute the rice with some diced carrots, garlic, cabbage, green onions and some frozen peas. A few tablespoons of soy sauce finishes off the dish. If I want stronger flavoring, I add garlic and mustard powder, and some sugar.

TVP Tacos

The other night Mr. S made the taco recipe from Vegan Cooking. It was very simple and fast to make, and you use your own TVP rather than buying the somewhat expensive pre-made stuff.

While certainly edible, there were some things I would do differently. The recipe calls for using a can of crushed tomatoes as the liquid to rehydrate the TVP. This resulted in a sort of mushy... stuff. I think preparing the TVP differently (maybe veggie broth and seasonings, then saute until liquid is gone?) and using fresh diced tomatoes as a topping would have been a lot better.

Sorry about the crap picture. Still trying to figure out the best lightening for food staging after the sun goes down. Darn you, fluorescent light bulbs.

Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce

It was lazy dinner night. Mr. S came home late, and I had already eaten dinner. So, he whipped up a simple meal of spaghetti noodles, sauteed mushrooms added to store-bought tomato sauce and raw parmesan topping.

I'm brainstorming something delicious for dinner tonight. There is some cauliflower calling to me.

As a side note, I think I've taken more pictures of food in the last week than of my kid for the previous month. Hmm.