Sweet 'n' Spicy

I developed not one, but TWO, new recipes for the cookbook tonight! I'm really trying to get this thing done by the end of the year — at least the recipe development part. For the main course this evening, I created Tangy Tempeh Chops Over Brown Rice:

It's a pork-ish marinated tempeh simmered in a sweet and tangy tomato-based sauce with green peppers. I got the idea from one of those old spiral-bound fundraiser-type cookbooks that my mom loaned me (I believe it was compiled by a church group in Arkansas). It's very, very un-vegan, but I love taking all the old country-style dishes in that book and putting a healthy vegan spin on them.

On the side, I finally tried my hand at hominy with this Spicy Jalepeno Hominy:

My dear friend Wes, who some of you may remember as my former awesome neighbor (he's still awesome, just not my neighbor now), makes the best hominy. So I took his recipe and added jalepenos, cause that's how I roll (for some reason, you can't see any jalepenos in this picture but they're in there). This side dish is super-simple and so comforting. There are few things in life better than plate of hot hominy.