Vegan Mofo: Vegan Pimento Cheeze

I used to love pimento cheese, that beloved nuclear-orange colored spread that comes in the big ole plastic tub. When I went vegan almost five years ago, I thought I'd just have to do without it for the rest of my life.

Then one night, I was tweaking a hummus recipe, and just for fun, I added a little nutritional yeast. And gasp! It tasted a lot like the pimento cheese I remembered. That being said, it's been awhile since I've eaten pimento cheese. But you have to admit that it looks quite similar:

My vegan pimento cheeze is another cookbook recipe, and I've been eating it spread on Whole Foods brand Mighty Multigrain bread all weekend:

By the way, doesn't the bread look really white? I bought it because it said "multigrain" and the ingredients look okay. But eating it makes me feel a little guilty ... like I'm eating evil white bread.

Mofo Muffins

It felt kinda weird making my first mofo post on Thursday and then waiting until Sunday to post the next one, but I don't like to post on weekends. I pledge to post every Sunday through Thursday night during Vegan Mofo III (except the week I'm away on vacation later this month). That's the best I can do. For me, weekends are for nightclubs, wine tastings, art shows, parties ... not blogging. But the weekend has come to an end, so here ya go ...

Last week, I baked up a batch of Mihl's Blueberry Muffins with White Chocolate Chips from Seitan Is My Motor:

Mihl posted the recipe (available here) several months ago, and I knew I had to make them! I've had half a bag of vegan white chocolate chips lurking in my pantry for awhile, and this sounded like the perfect excuse to use them up. Not to mention that I've been craving muffins for awhile.

Despite containing sinfully delicious white chocolate chips (the brand I had was made with all kinds of not-good-for-you ingredients), these tasty breakfast bites seem pretty healthy. I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of all-p, and the recipe only calls for a half-cup plus 2 tablespoons of sugar. I used Kroger brand frozen organic blueberries, and they were some of the plumpest berries I've seen!

Lucky for me, I froze most of the muffins to eat again for breakfast this week, accompanied by Whole Soy & Co. yogurt.

You's a Cornbred Fed Vegan Mofo!

I'm starting Vegan Mofo off with one of my all-time favorite Southern comfort foods — Beans 'n' Cornbread. Nothing satisfies this downhome gal like a big ole' steamy bowl of beans topped with a slice of sweet cornbread. A few months ago, my Granny developed a recipe for my cookbook for this Beans 'n' Greens Soup:

White beans, collard greens, tomato, and some spices. Mmm-mmm. I'm rubbin' my belly just thinkin' about it. I tested her recipe this week, and it's delicious. And healthy too! Of course, a bowl of beans ain't nothin' without a hunk of cornbread. That's where my recipe for Jalapeno-Corn Cornbread comes in:

Another cookbook tester, this cornbread is one of my favorites from the book. I've been tweaking it for ages, but I think it's ready for lift-off. It's sweet like Jiffy, minus all those hydrogenated oils and crap. And I add frozen corn and chopped pickled jalepenos for a kick.

Some folks down South like to crumble their cornbread into their beans and stir it all together. But I prefer to plop a whole slice right on top of the bowl, douse it in hot sauce, and cut into it with each wholesome bite:

Garden of Awesome

It's been far too long since I used my beloved Sarah Kramer cookbooks. The Garden of Vegan was actually my first vegan cookbook. I wrote an email to the publishing company requesting a catalog of their books because I'd seen one at work. In the email, I mentioned how excited I was to order The Garden of Vegan. And to my surprise, the whole book was in my mailbox a few weeks later — for free!

I wasn't even vegan then, just vegetarian. But I remember being quite inspired by the healthy recipes. Back then (somewhere around 2002), I was living on Ramen noodles, mac & cheese, and frozen pizzas. Fast forward to 2009. Flipping through my much-neglected, well-worn copy of Garden, I stumbled upon the recipe for Awesome Asian Noodle Salad:

Now, this isn't really the kind of dish that needs a recipe. But I probably wouldn't have thought it up on my own. Thanks to Sarah Kramer, it'll be going in my regular repertoire. I subbed flavored tempeh for the tofu in the recipe ... just because. The noodles are soba, and the mushrooms are baby bella. The sauce is a simple mix of rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, and fresh ginger.

A word on the tempeh: I used those new Lightlife Ginger Teriyaki Tempehtations — pre-cubed, flavored tempeh. It was tasty, but not really worth the $4 I paid for the teensy package (and that was on sale ... regular Whole Foods price was $5!). Next time, I'll marinate some plain tempeh and save a few bucks.

In case you didn't notice the Vegan Mofo banner to the right, I'm participating this year! Yea! It's my first year actually getting around to signing up. For those who don't know, Vegan Mofo stands for Vegan Month of Food. For the third October in a row, hundreds of vegan food bloggers are pledging to post as much as possible throughout the month.

I pledge to post every weekday in October (with the exception of Oct. 23-28 cause I'll be on vacation in New Orleans!). I typically post most weekdays anyway, so I don't think it'll be too much of a challenge. The real challenge will be keeping up with all the other Mofo-ers. For a full list or to sign up, go to Kittee's Cake Maker to the Stars blog.

Banana Brulee Oats

The lovely Miss Katie at Chocolate Covered Vegan has discovered the darndest thing! Microwaving a banana creates a big ole pile of creamy, caramelized banana-y goodness. She and other vegan bloggers have been enjoying this find stirred into wholesome oats. Katie's posted a ton of pictures of the variations on her Banana Brulee Oats. But mine was quite simple. I give you Banana Brulee Oats, Elvis-Style:

As a Memphian, I'm obliged to love the King's fave food combo — peanut butter and banana. Lucky for me, that love comes quite naturally. Especially when that peanut butter is White Chocolate Wonderful and the banana is caramelized. I also added some maple syrup to my steel cut oats for extra sweetness.

For the banana trick, simply microwave a broken-up banana with a tablespoon or so of water for about two minutes. It gets all melty and creamy. Plop it atop your oats and dress as desired.

Tortilla Toss-Up

When I bought Vegan Brunch, I remember scanning past the recipe for Scrambled Tortillas and thinking, "That's kinda weird ... but intriguing." I made a mental note to try it out one day. I love me some corn tortillas, and they always come like a million to a package (what's up with that, anyway?). I had some leftover from another recipe last week, so it seemed time to try Isa's Scrambled Tortillas:

Basically, you take torn-up tortillas and fry 'em up with onions and jalepenos. Then you pour blended soft (not silken) tofu over the tortillas and mix it all up. The tofu cooks up and gets browned in places. Then you stir in some steamed potatoes, top it with a homemade Mexican-style tomato sauce, and guacamole. Yum! I also sprinkled mine with nooch, though the recipe doesn't call for it. One word of advice on this recipe: use hella more salt than it calls for! Other than that, it's a keeper. I'll certainly make this again.

On the side, I had some of my Creole Steamed Sausages:

I based this recipe off the famed Julie Hasson steamed sausages, but added my own spice combination for maximum spicy creole goodness. It's definitely going in the cookbook.

Thanks for all your awesome comments on the Dalai Lama post. I don't think I'll ever be able to top that post/moment. I feel totally blessed!

Cookies on Toast (and the Dalai Lama)

Remember the speculoos spread craze from the PPK? A while back, everyone was raving about this spread made from European speculoos cookies. Lotus makes it, and they sell it in jars like peanut butter. But it's not available in Memphis, as far as I can tell. Thankfully, Mihl of Seitan Is My Motor developed her own recipe for making a similar spread at home using Speculoos or Biscoff cookies (or biscuits, as they say in Europe).

Up until a few weeks ago, I didn't think I could find those cookies around here either. But Poopie Bitch sent me an urgent text message alerting me that she'd found Biscoff (the American name for Speculoos biscuits) at both Kroger and Walgreens! I rushed to the nearest Walgreens and bought a pack for $2.50!

Then I came home and whipped up Mihl's Speculoos Spread. I've been enjoying it on whole wheat toast for breakfast everyday this week:

Imagine spreading buttery cookies all over toast. Sounds like heaven, right? This stuff is so amazing. I made a few changes to Mihl's recipe. She calls for one-fourth cup of coconut oil, but I only used 2 tablespoons (along with 4 tablespoons of water). Even though coconut oil is good fat, I couldn't bring myself to use that much since the cookies contain some fat too.

I enjoyed the toast with a couple slices of smoky Tempeh Bacon, a recipe from my cookbook:

Until yesterday, I was certain that speculoos spread was the highlight of my week. But a miraculous thing happened yesterday. The Dalai-freakin'-Lama touched my lip ring! Seriously.

He was in town to accept the International Freedom Award from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. Since I work for the alt-weekly (the Memphis Flyer), I was allowed to sit in on a media Q&A with the Dalai Lama before the ceremony. As he was leaving the session, he stopped to shake hands with a few media folks who were reaching out to touch him.

I was sitting at the end of a row. As he started to walk past me, he suddenly stopped and looked at my lip stud. Then he lightly grabbed it, wiggled it, and laughed to himself. Then he walked on. It was so unexpected and really amazing. I feel blessed! Here's a picture of me and the Dalai Lama after he pulled his hand away. You can see how totally giddy I am:

Photo courtesy of Mark Ramirez