Scraps and Snippets ~ A Little Late, But Not For Next Year...

Do you ever have those V8 moments, but not about V8?

The ones where you say. "Duh!!!! I coulda/shoulda been paying attention."

Apparently yesterday was national Food Day. October 24, 2011. What a great thing to blog about during Vegan Month of Food (aka MoFo). Yeah. Well, would have been, and, still going to.

Here's what I found out, accidentally, while reading someone else's timely post about Food Day, after the fact.

There were Food Day events in my area. (I remember driving by a sign that mentioned the farmer's market special event on Sunday, the 23rd. Of course I was excited. The sign was colorful and I love farmer's markets. But then I apparently got distracted and never revisited the initial happy, happy, joy, joy moment. Another bit of interesting trivia. One of my state's Senators is a chairperson. Whodathunk.

The Food Day goal is simple. "Food Day seeks to bring together Americans from all walks of life—parents, teachers, and students; health professionals, community organizers, and local officials; chefs, school lunch providers, and eaters of all stripes—to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way."

Uhhh. I can support that. So next year, I will. I signed up for their emails so I can have a bit of a heads up. Clearly I need all the shiny, colorful reminders I can get.

Check em out, and Eat Well Guide, too.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Weekend Over ~ Sigh...

This past weekend was full of fun and food. Vegan food, of course. Our meat-eating friends visited from up north. They left with full tummies and a few recipes. Most of the recipes they adored were desserts. (Surprise there.) I know it's a good visit when my Martha Stewart friend, Michelle, wants to make a recipe I've served. And I'm pretty excited that all of them were Vegan recipes. (Did I mention that they pretty much love meat and dairy?)

& outdid herself in the dessert department. She made Peanut Butter cups from The Kind Diet, a pumpkin "cheese"cake (which also works great for a guilt free breakfast the next morning), and pumpkin muffins and sparkling ginger snaps from Vegan with a Vengeance.

I didn't take many pictures of food since we were busy having fun. We checked out some local history. Did a whole lot of shopping. They like the prices at our thrift stores and are fans of a few stores we have that they don't. We even went to the library and church. And for long dog walks with our two big girls and their teeny, tiny Arthur.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Recipe Book Review ~ Vegan With a Vengeance...

I'm not a cookbook collector. Oh, I collect books and have a whole wall of bookshelves to prove it. But I need my cookbooks to be more than pretty decoration. If they don't work for me, I scavenge what I will use, put it in a three ring binder and the cookbook moves to a new home. Vegan with a Vengeance is moving in.

Why?

I've made nine recipes. One of them twice. All but one of them stellar. The following is a list of the items I've tried.

Seitan. Terrific and easy. Yum.

Sparkled Ginger Cookies. AMAZING. All thumbs, and big toes, up.

Fauxstess Cupcake. They taste freakishly like the original.

Chocolate Chip cookies. Good

Pumpkin Muffins. Really good.

Lemon Gem Cupcakes (I made a bundt version... very, very lemony delish)

Gingerbread Apple Pie (Good and got raves from non-Vegans.)

Cold Udon Noodles with Peanut Sauce and Seitan (making that one for dinner tomorrow, the sauce and seitan are done, pretty sure it's going to be delish.)

Other recipes are marked with "gotta try this" strips of paper. Others won't be ones that tempt me. She has a pancake recipe that looks way too involved and I have a pancake recipe that I LOVE. Scrambled Tofu, tried it, didn't love it and I have another recipe I like better. Many of her recipes are comfort food makeovers or fun twists on standard ethnic dishes.

Moskowitz is clever, creative and funny. Her bodacious attitude peppers the book with comments and she shares her story, her kitchen tool list, and her ingredient must haves. Her cat, Fizzle, pops in with interesting facts throughout the book.

I don't think Vegan with a Vengeance could be the only Vegan cookbook you'll ever need, but it certainly can add a whole lot of interesting spice to your menu repertoire.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Recipe Book Review ~ Peas and Thank You...

The best thing about writing book reviews is when you score a free FABULOUS book to review. So thank you, Peas and Thank You marketing team. That said. I don't write glowing reviews unless the book deserves one.


When I get a cookbook, I look through the recipes and try a few that sound good to me. And if there are five or ten recipes I will add to my life recipe file, I consider the book a keeper. I'm pretty picky. If a recipe book has only two or three I want to try, I don't buy it. If I'm given the book with just a few keeper recipes I usually will copy down the recipe, put it in my file and get rid of the book. I just don't need a huge shelf of books that aren't being used.


Peas and Thank You is a keeper. A lifetime member of my recipe shelf. The recipes I've tried are delicious, they turn out when I follow the easy directions, and they don't taste like someone is trying real hard to make tasty food healthier. Everyone who has tried the recipes I've made from Peas and Thank You, whether Vegan or meat eater, cautious eater, or don't-give-a-rat's-rear-end-what they put in their mouth, rave about the food.

I have only tried nine of the recipes, but three of them I've made several times. These are the recipes I've tried and love. And they are SO worth the stinking sticker price. Heck. I'm tempted to send a check to someone.


Apple Cinnamon Pancakes
Lemon Lentil Soup
Cutout Sugar Cookies
Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt
Almond Joy Cookie Bars
Peanut Butter Blondies with Ganache
Double Chocolate Single Chin Brownies
Grand Old Biscuits
Lemon Rosemary Roasted Chickpeas


I have about a dozen more that I must try. More recipes are marked than not.


Mama Pea (Sarah Matheny) is a talented and engaging writer as well and she shares charming and sweetly twisted stories about each recipe. I don't often laugh when reading a recipe book. I did with this one. She also shares pantry information, details about why they went vegan and most of her recipes are designed for busy folks and use convenience items. If you are newly Vegan, want to explore meatless, or love cookbooks, you need to add it to your list.


The only thing I did not love was the recipe title appeared at the beginning of each recipe, but not after the story and right before ingredients. So some recipes are a page or two after the introduction/story. So you have to do a little page flipping to make sure you are on the right recipe. Otherwise I LOVE it. Don't even ask to borrow it. This little sucker is part of me now.

Scraps and Snippets ~ No Bake Cookies Vegan Style, and Mouth Nirvana "Chicken Salad"

Insanity. Making cookies a half hour before needing to be on the road. This kind of sums up my life. Sadly. The insanity and the cookie parts. Ha.


Before the cookies let me share the "Chicken Salad" Recipe.

I had a love/hate relationship with Chicken Salad when I ate meat. Biting into gamey or bland Chicken Salad was the worst!!! GAG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But every once in awhile you could find one that was a party in your mouth. Texture, flavors, YUM. I've been trying for the past few months to find that mouth Nirvana.


This is pretty flippin close for me. Rob even said I should make it again. Trust me. High praise. Ha. Ha.

This is the One - "Chicken" Salad

Bread of choice. ( : ) ) Or not. Eat it out of the bowl if you want.

3 TBSP Veganaise

1 TBSP rustic mustard (just not the yellow plain)

Add:

1 small diced apple (firm sour is best)

a handful of chopped pecans

1 Cup of small diced, nicely flavored Seitan (if your Seitan is bland, (I used the lemon/garlic one) you could add some seasonings)

1 Celery rib finely chopped.

Finely chopped onion to taste, I didn't add this and it would be the final blast of taste I was looking for. I'm thinking a small wedge would do.

Mix all together and enjoy! Loved the texture/taste combo.

And finally, the cookies. Here's the thing about me of late. I have come to the understanding that taking favorite recipes and Veganizing them is almost easy. Doi!!!! After months of trying to create from the ground up, I figure this out. Anyhoo. I took the No Bake Recipe my mom used to make and tweaked it Vegan style. (NOT TOUGH, Sheesh!) and the cookies were awesome. Didn't take pictures, they didn't last that long. Ha. Ha.

No Bake Cookies (Veganized)

1 3/4 cups Vegan sugar

1/2 cup almond milk

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup Earth Balance

4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup peanut butter

3 cups oatmeal

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup dried cranberries

Combine sugar, milk, coconut oil, Earth Balance, and cocoa in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, and cook for 1 1/2 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in peanut butter, oatmeal, and vanilla, when mixed add cranberries and stir well. Drop blobs onto wax paper. Let cool until hardened.

Just like my Mama used to make. Kind of, mostly. I want to try decreasing the sugar to see if I can't make them a wee bit less sweet. But that may throw off the chemistry and make them not harden.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Panic, the Mother of Creativity... Or At Least Decent Meals

I mentioned an upcoming/looming camping trip yesterday. And that Friday night hit and I needed 4 meals ready to prepare over campfires or to eat out of a cooler. Panic. Did I mention Rob's two meat eating friends wanted to try a little bit of our Vegan food, too? Yikes.


I had leftover Lemon/Olive/Garlic Seitan cutlets. I could have frozen the cutlets. But I needed food ideas now, and since I had them, creativity (for me) often comes from panic. Here are my not so necessarily creative recipes, that worked.

Seitan Phillies

Bread or Vegan Naan

Slivers of seitan slices (3/4 cup or so)

Onion slivers (about 1/2 an onion)

Peppers slivered (a pepper or 1/2 a bag of Trader Joe's frozen Pepper Medley)

Mushrooms (a cup or so)

Saute onions/peppers in a wee bit of oil or Earth Balance. Add mushrooms, When they are all tender, add Seitan. Serve it up. Rob put Vegan ranch on it. I didn't put anything on it. Pretty tasty.

Seitan Three Bean Chili

1 1/2 Cups (or 1 rinsed and drained can) White Beans

1 1/2 Cups (or 1 rinsed and drained can) Pinto Beans

1 1/2 Cups (or 1 rinsed and drained can) Black Beans

1 Cup diced Seitan

1 Small jar Salsa (1/2 Jar Water)

1 tsp Paprika

1 tsp Cayenne

1 tsp Garlic Powder

2 diced tomatoes (or a can of diced tomatoes)

Toss all together and let it simmer.

This had bite which wasn't aiyii hot, but nice. The heat of the salsa would make a difference. Mine was a homemade medium.




If my mad dash to prep food Friday night wasn't enough, Saturday morning as I packed up the food, I decided we needed some chocolate treats. It occurred to me that No Bake Cookies would hit the spot.


Come back tomorrow for that recipe.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Ginger Maple Pear Sauce

Rob and I camped over the weekend. It was a perfect few days to spend outdoors. But Friday night found me feeling unprepared foodwise for four meals on the go. So I had to get creative. A couple of Rob's buddies were joining us and they wanted to try out some of our Veg food. Extra pressure for sure.

Creativity and four pears that wouldn't survive the weekend gave me a bit of inspiration. I had plans to make Vegan french toast. And I thought a pear sauce would maybe be nice. I was right.

Maple Ginger Pear Sauce

4 peeled sliced or diced pears
3 TBSP Maple Syrup
1 tsp powdered ginger

Put all in a saucepan. Simmer for about a half an hour. As the pears get softer, begin smashing the bits until the mixture resembles applesauce.

When it is cool, place in a jar and refrigerate. It makes about a cup. Use within a week or so.
 

We spread it on our french toast and it was pretty delicious.