I Love Waffles!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my pal Leslie made me a jar of herbal-infused maple syrup. Leslie's "Sweetly Soothing Syrup" contains hawthorn, rose, ginger, and yummy cinnamon! The herb combo is supposed to calming for the nerves and healthy on the heart. Leslie's like a master herbalist or something, so I take her word on that.



Well, of course, I had to try it out as soon as I returned from Nashville. So last night, I veganized a basic waffle recipe and added chopped pecans, cinnamon, vanilla, and flax. My Cinnamon Pecan Waffles are definitely going in my Southern vegan cookbook. Southerners use pecans in just about everything, so this is perfect!




I put the batter in the fridge last night, so it would be ready for the waffle machine first thing in the morning. I don't have time to mix up waffle batter before work, but it holds up well in the fridge. I made the mix up right before going to bed, and I actually dreamed of waffles. Crazy, huh? That should tell you how much I love waffles!

On a completely un-waffle note, I ate at a brand-new vegetarian/vegan restaurant in Nashville this weekend called The Veggie Cafe. I didn't bring my camera, but I had the meatless meatloaf, sauteed spinach, and creamed sweet potatoes. Wow, what a soothing plate of food! I'll definitely be going back there every time in I'm Nashville!

Seitan and Dumplins

I've been working on perfecting my Seitan and Dumplins recipe, my vegan version of Chicken and Dumplins, for awhile. But tonight, I think I've finally settled the right combination of ingredients.



Last night, I made some quick seitan from vital gluten flour and simmered it in a "chicken"-flavored broth. Tonight, I simmered cubed potatoes, chopped carrots, and onions in vegetable broth. I made a batch of vegan biscuit dough, and dropped little pieces in the boiled broth mixture and then added the seitan. In the last minute of cooking, I added frozen peas.

This was definitely a hearty winter meal, even though it's spring now. But I really wanted to get this one right before it got too hot to eat hearty food. It's going in the cookbook since Chicken and Dumplins (notice there's no "g" at the end of "dumplin") are totally Southern fare.

My friend Leslie stopped by and sampled the dumplins, and she also brought me a very special treat — homemade herb-infused cinnamon maple syrup!!! I took a picture, but I'll have to flip it in Photoshop. I think I'll wait to post it when I make waffles again...which will be soon because I'm dying to try this stuff.

For dessert, I whipped up a batch of Mississippi Mud Cookies, a no-bake treat made with cocoa powder, peanut butter, and oats.



Stef from the Poopie Bitch blog brought a batch to lunch yesterday, and that got me craving more. I've been wanting create a veganized version for the dessert section in my cookbook anyway. These are REALLY simple.

Here's the recipe:

Mississippi Mud Cookies
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1/2 cup soymilk
2 cups evaporated cane sugar
1/2 cup soy margarine
3 Tbsp. cocoa powder
1/2 cup natural crunchy peanut butter (or any crunchy nut butter)
3 cups oats

Mix soymilk, sugar, margarine, and cocoa in a saucepan. Heat to a rapid boil, and then boil one more minute. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter and oats. Drop tablespoonfuls onto waxed paper and place in the fridge to cool and harden.

UPDATE: This batch did not set completely so they were a little gooey. My mom tells me I should have let the mixture boil for 2-3 minutes. She also suggests plopping a little of the cocoa/butter/soymilk mixture into a glass of cold water before turning off the heat to see if it forms a ball. If it does, she says it's ready. Either way, they taste the same. It's just easier to pick up when the cookies are harder.

BTW, this will be my last post until Sunday or Monday....going to Nashville for the weekend...see ya!

Vegan Food for the Soul

My dear pal Leslie is in town from North Carolina. She moved to Asheville last year, which she claims is some sort of vegan, hippie mecca. I'm super jealous! Anyhow, she wanted to try Java, Juice, & Jazz, the new vegan-friendly soul food restaurant on Elvis Presley Boulevard.

Stef from vegan blog Poopie Bitch and Vaughan (my partner-in-crime in our local vegetarian society/animal rights group, Food Awareness) joined us too.

On the menu today were tofu-stuffed cabbage rolls in an herbed tomato sauce, okra & tomatoes, and collard greens:



They were also serving veggie medley, tofu fried rice, grilled cabbage, and some kind of fried sweet potato chips (but they had honey, so they weren't technically vegan).

Man, the cabbage rolls were tasty! A little hard to cut with a fork, but the tofu stuffing inside was really yummy.

Unfortunatley, Java didn't have any vegan desserts available today. Their menu rotates daily, and the iced layer cake was not vegan. But that was okay because Stef brought Mud Cookies, or Cow Patties as some people call them. You know, those peanut buttery chocolate no-bake cookies with oats. They were amazing. The wait staff and cooks at the restaurant sampled them too, and they were very impressed. If you haven't seen Stef's blog, you should check it out. This girl has been baking like crazy, and her treats always look delectable.

Tonight, I warmed up some leftover Tofu Surprise from Monday night's dinner. I had plans to meet my friend Autumn's brand-new baby, which she just popped out a couple weeks ago. His name is Ansell, and even though he's definitely not food, I thought it'd be cute to post a picture of him here. Isn't his "Automatic Sprinkler" shirt adorable?

Don't Skip Breakfast

In an effort to eat more greens, I made a big batch of steamed kale and brown rice on Sunday night to mix together for breakfast bowls all week long.



I threw in some yummy White Wave Thai-Style Sesame Peanut Baked Tofu for good measure. Then, I stirred in a few drops of soy sauce and a 1/2 teaspoon of flax oil. Wow, what an easy wholesome breakfast! I got whole grains, greens, and soy protein in one bowl. I washed it all down with fresh-squeezed orange juice, so I also started the day with a nice boost of Vitamin C too.

This dish would have been great with plain, marinated tofu as well. But the Sesame Peanut tofu at Wild Oats was calling me. Sesame Peanut tofu and kale may not sound all that breakfast-y, but I tend to eat just about anything for breakfast that I'd eat any other time of the day.

Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day for me. I get all nauseus and whiny if I don't eat some time in the hour after I've woken up. And nobody likes a whiny Bianca...

Tofu Surprise!

Tonight, I veganized a recipe for Chicken Spaghetti Casserole ... I'm calling it Tofu "Chicken" Surprise because it contains a few ingredients that I was surprised to see listed together. But it tastes awesome!



The original recipe came from "The Best of the Best Arkansas Recipes." It's one of those spiral bound-type books where many of the ingredients are processed, canned convenience items. I borrowed it from my mom so I could veganize and unprocess some of the classic Southern dishes.

For this dish, I marinated some tofu in a faux chicken broth overnight. Then I mixed it with vegan cream of mushroom soup, canned tomatoes, bell pepper, onion, celery, and whole wheat penne pasta. Then I topped it with nutritional yeast and baked for 30 minutes.

I would have never thought to put canned tomatoes and cream of mushroom in the same recipe. The surprise is that those two ingredients actually work very well together. At first, the sauce was a little pink (the mix of the white cream soup and the red tomatoes), but it cooked up to become a more appetizing orange.

I had to make the cream of mushroom from scratch using soymilk, mushrooms, cornstarch, and some dried herbs. I want to include this in my cookbook, so I didn't want to rely too heavily on hard-to-find items like canned vegan cream of mushroom. I'm trying to create each recipe with easy-to-locate ingedients, so people living in rural areas can make each dish. I know what it's like being veg in a small town, and let me tell ya folks, it ain't easy.

One weekend, two potlucks

As you may have guessed by the title of this post, I went to a couple potlucks this weekend, both in celebration of the Vernal (or Spring) Equinox. On Saturday, I went to a picnic/grill-out/potluck in Bartlett, a surburb of Memphis. It was held outside, and yesterday was actually a little cold with temps in the mid-60s. We were all freezing by the time it was over. Most of the attendees are omnis, but a couple were veg and we threw out Tofurky Chiptole Franks and Smart Dogs on the grill.

I brought a veganized, whole wheat version of Hot Cross Buns, a traditional Easter treat:



I found the recipe online, but I made a couple slight changes. I'm going to post the amended recipe (with my variations).

Vegan Hot Cross Buns
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4 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/3 cup Evaporated Cane Sugar
2 tablespoons Quick Rise Instant Yeast
1 teaspoon Salt
2 teaspoons Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Grated Nutmeg
2 cups Warm Water
1/4 cup Melted vegan margarine
2 liquid egg replacers
1 cup Raisins or part currants

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, yeast, salt cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir in warm water and vegan margarine, then egg replacers. Using a wooden spoon, vigorously stir dough until smooth and elastic. Stir in raisins. Scrape down sides of bowl, cover with a clean dry towel and stand for 10 minutes. Grease 24 medium to large-sized muffin cups and spoon in batter -- no more than 2/3 full.

Brush tops with melted margarine. Cover and let rise in a warm place until almost double, about 20 - 30 minutes.

Bake in an oven preheated to 375 degrees for about 20 minutes or until tops are browned. Let cool on wire racks until warm, about 10 - 15 minutes.


Lemon Icing (veganized from Southern Living):
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2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbsp. soy milk
1/2 tsp. lemon zest
1 Tbsp. melted soy margarine

Combine until smooth; place in a piping bag or spoon on top of buns to make crosses.

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Today, I went to another potluck at my friend Scott and Andrea's house in Cordova, another suburb. I made Whole Wheat Pasta Salad with Balsalmic Vinegarette and Faux Feta.



I didn't use a recipe, just whipped it up. But it was super tasty. The star was the Sunergia Soy Feta in Mediterranean Herb flavor. They sell it at Wild Oats, and I could just eat it right out of the package.

Whole Wheat Pasta Salad with Balsamic Vinegarette
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1 lb. whole wheat rotini
10 black olives, sliced
2 Roma tomatoes, diced
1 marinated red pepper, diced
2 Tbsp. red onion, minced very fine
1 package Sunergia soy feta

Dressing:
3 Tbsp. balsalmic vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp. maple syrup
1 tsp. flax seed oil
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1 clove garlic, minced
black pepper to taste

Combine in a jar with a lid and shake vigorously. Pour over pasta salad and mix well.

Cupcakes & Peanuts!

Last night, I visited my parents in Jonesboro, Arkansas. They had an Easter basket for me (yea, I'm almost 30 and I still get Easter baskets...my parents are awesome!), so I drove an hour to visit and retreive my goodies. Inside the basket was a copy of "The Complete Vegan Kitchen" by Jannequin Bennett, a nice sauce pan (which didn't actually fit inside the basket), a cute black Hello Kitty purse, a lavendar-flavored Dagoda dark chocolate bar, some almonds and mixed nuts, and a bag of Cracker Jacks (totally vegan!).

Of course, my mom had already cracked open the cookbook before I arrived to whip up some Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting.



These are DELECTABLE! In fact, I'm eating one right now. The cake part contains no white sugar, but instead is sweetened with molasses and maple syrup. And she used whole wheat pastry flour and soy flour. The icing recipe came off the internet and called for Tofutti Cream Cheese. She didn't think she'd like the frosting recipe in the cookbook, which had a silk tofu base.

My daddy had been working on a batch of Cajun Boiled Peanuts for a full day before I got there.



They take 22 hours in a Crock Pot, so he started them the day before. I'd never had boiled peanuts until last year when my parents and I took a road trip to New Orleans...we stopped at a little rural gas station and they had spicy Cajun boiled peanuts for sale. I had to try them. My dad and I were pleasantly surprised. He thought he'd hate them. Now he makes his own version of the spicy nuts we ate that day. If you've never had a boiled peanut (it's totally a Southern thing), you crack open the shell and dig out the soft nut. It's the texture of a cooked bean. And they taste a little like beans. Yum!