4th of July and stuff

A lot of food stuff has come up lately! I promised Jacob a birthday breakfast and cupcakes.

S'more pancakes. Pancakes with graham crackers in the batter, chocolate chips, ricemellow creme, and another pancake on top. With another dollop of ricemellow, chocolate chips, and graham cracker crumb.

Red velvet cupcakes. Half with buttercream frosting and half with cream cheese icing.

I had one problem with these. I searched for a vegan food coloring and found one, but it was pink. I figured if I added a lot of it that it would turn them red. Well, I had to add the whole bottle of food coloring. It still wasn't red enough and tasted really bitter from the dye. When frosted, you really couldn't tell they were bitter. But still. I wasn't very happy with them. Plus, I wanted to frost them prettier, but Jacob's mom rushed me and I got mad. But I will say one thing: I like Follow your Heart cream cheese MUCH better than Tofutti. It has more.. tang.

And yeah, he had a pirate birthday party for his 20th. :)

Then we had the 4th of July. I wanted something summery and something that wouldn't heat up the house too much.

Chipotle BBQ seitan with onions, peppers, and vegenaise on an onion bun. On the side is potato salad and corn on the cob with roasted garlic butter.

And then, since I had leftover buttercream and chocolate chips, I made MORE cupcakes. But this time I just made 6 so I wouldn't eat too many...

Peanut butter chocolate chip cupcakes with buttercream and chocolate chips on top.

I have eaten WAY too much in the past week. So don't expect too many fancy things in the near future.

French toast

Well, Vegan Brunch has been out for a little while. I don't have the extra money to get it yet, though I am planning on it. So I decided to try one of the recipes posted on ThePPK. Pumpkin French Toast!

I added sugar to the custard because we didn't have any syrup. I didn't want it to be too bland. I thought I would love it since I love french toast and I LOVE all things pumpkin. Well, I wasn't TOO crazy about it. I don't know what it was. The flavor just wasn't too great to me. Maybe it was because I only had half the amount of cinnamon (WHO RUNS OUT OF CINNAMON? Me. :() or because I added nutmeg instead of cloves because I didn't have any. I really don't know. Someone give me faith that this recipe is good enough to try again!

Sweet sweet peanut butter

I'm really updating to tell you about the most delicious peanut butter in existance. It would be Peanut Butter & Co.'s White Chocolate Wonderful. It is certified vegan and is amazing. I got it at Super Target, so hopefully everyone else can find it around them. Yumyum!!

And since I'm already here, I'll post a new picture.

I have a very summery dinner here:

Chickpea tacos on blue corn taco shells. Inside are chickpeas cooked in the liquid from one can and an organic fish taco seasoning packet. It was vegan, and it was zesty. Then there are tomatoes, onions, pineapple, guacamole, and a little Teese.

Hopefully there will be more to come. I'm planning cupcakes for Jacob's birthday on the 3rd and something yum for the 4th!

Lazy days

Ah, summer. No school or work, so being lazy takes up my days. I have also been cooking a little bit here and there.

I have actually made a couple things with no recipes! Haha. I usually depend on recipes because I don't feel like I have good enough cooking skills to just cook without recipes. But here are the few things I have cooked without any recipes.

We have a chili lime refried bean burrito with cheese sauce, onions, and red sauce. On the side is chipotle brown rice and avocado slices.


Here is the thing I'm most proud of. Stuffed shells! I made the ricotta filling all by myself and it was better than any I have made from a recipe. Mmm.


A tofu veggie pot pie with a turkey cut out!


Here is the inside. It was carrots, peas, corn, green beans, potatoes, and super firm tofu. Then a chicken-y type gravy.


Homemade pizza is the best. This one had jalapenos (which Jacob and I both took off because they were the spiciest jalapenos I have ever had. I almost cried.), baby spinach, onions, mushrooms, black olives, tomatoes, and a little sprinkle of soy blue cheese. All on whole wheat crust.

Well, there we have it. All my recipe-less food! I'm quite proud. :D

New stuff

Yay, I'm posting!

We've been pretty broke, again, so I hardly cook anything worth posting. We eat lots of rice, beans, veggie burgers, and salads. Boring!

I made a pretty good dinner for Easter, even though we don't really celebrate it.

Field Roast Celebration roast, garlic mashed red skin potatoes, green beans, roasted veggies and Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy from VWaV.

I really regret never making the punk rock chickpea gravy! I always passed it by saying "Oh, I'll just get powdered gravy mix." NEVER AGAIN. It's so much better than that powdered crap. Only thing is, I put too much lemon juice in. It was a tad bit... lemony. But other than that, it was yum.

Oh, and I found the best tofu ever. I have been trying to cook tofu for years, and I have always hated it. It was too mushy, and just bleh. But I have found it. The secret to all of the firm delicious tofu I have had is right here: VACUUM PACKED WILDWOOD SUPER FIRM TOFU.

Why didn't anyone ever tell me that it is the best tofu in the entire world? I was eating it just pan fried with nothing else on it, and I was happy. I usually have to smother my tofu in something before I like it, but I finally found my love.

Now I really LOVE tofu. I crave it. Oh man.

Speaking of the tofu, here are some things I have made with it:

Tofu "chicken" nuggets with roasted sweet potatoes.

These nuggets are so easy! Just cube some tofu, dip them in water, then in some whole wheat bread crumbs seasoned with poultry seasoning, garlic powder, and salt and pepper, then put them in the oven at 350 degrees for 25-30 mins or until they're brown.

And then

Orange tofu with pineapple and peas over brown rice.

One last thing. I WON A PACKAGE OF TEESE.

I was so excited, because for one, I never win anything, and two, I LOVE TEESE.

They had a contest on Twitter. Submit a picture of something you made with Teese. I submitted my Philly Cheezesteak (seen below), and won!

I picked creamy cheddar. Oh man.

OMG CHEEZE.

So, in case anyone out there lives under a rock, Teese is the new greatest cheeze on the planet.

I just bought the new nacho "sauce" and let me tell you, best thing ever. Melt it in a pan, pour it over just about everything, and inhale. It's a little spicy, but not much. It has the best flavor. I really can't recommend it enough.

Here it is melting in a pan. It even has that orange grease that regular cheese has when it melts.

I made one thing with it so far, and it was amazing.

Philly Cheezesteak made with faux roast beef, mushrooms, onions and green peppers. I topped it with the nacho Teese and had it on roasted garlic bread. On the side are some oven fries with more Teese sauce. Heaven.

I'm making my next meal with it tomorrow night. Mmm.

Also, The Chicago SoyDairy Co. Has some new MARSHMALLOWS. I need them. Right away. So someone please start selling them!!!

Wow

I am the most horrible blogger around. I wanted to start this blog because I wanted to meet fellow vegans. But I don't get any comments and no one really reads this, so I lost motivation.

But, I'm bored, and here are some pictures of food!

Here are my BEAUTIFUL Valentine's day chocolates from foodfightgrocery.com. They're made by Rose City Chocolatier, which I highly recommend.



Then here are some Asian dumplings inspired by Vegan Dad. They were pretty good, but the dough wasn't great. On the side is brown rice with sauteed mushrooms. And my pretty new chopsticks.

Um, wow. I guess that's it. I blame my lack of pictures on lack of money and free chipotle burritos.

Christmas... is over

It's so hard to believe that Christmas is over already. This year, it did not seem like Christmas at all. Very very lame.

I had a good one though. Got everything I wanted, including my first laptop. Yay. And a reusable bottle and Brita water filter. Oh and Vegan Cupcakes take over the world!

I made some pretty good food. Have a look:

We had Celebration roast, gravy, organic cranberry jelly, garlic cheddar biscuits, corn bread stuffing, regular herbed stuffing, and garlic mashed potatoes.

We had pumpkin pie too, but I didn't make it myself. I got it out of a box. Hahaha.

Pretty sure I have gained like 10 pounds. Time to cook yummy healthy meals!

Very, very late Thanksgiving.

I have been so busy lately I really haven't had a chance to post about Thanksgiving. We went to Disneyland the day after Thanksgiving, and then I had Christmas shopping to do, and now I'm watching my 2 month old niece.

Anyways, here was all the food. Yes, it was only for two people...

I made everything I said I would in my last post. My camera died, so I didn't get good pictures of the pumpkin cheesecake. It decided to only be one layer instead of two... Then my mom insisted I use her really old metal pan to cook my stuffing in, and well, the bottom had some weird reaction, and the whole bottom of the stuffing turned greyish black and tasted like chemicals. Ugh. So I plan on making a feast similar to this for Christmas. So that for one, I can have more stuffing, and for two, I love pigging out. :D

Oh, and Disneyland wasn't very hard to be vegan in. I had fruit, vegetarian chili in a delicious bread bowl, vegan gumbo, veggie burrito, Mmm. The Jamba Juice at Downtown Disney also had some new prepackaged sandwiches and salads and two of them said VEGAN on the front! Yay! Oh, and if you ever come across a Flying J rest stop, the chocolate chip cookies they make there are accidentally vegan and SO GOOD. They're really soft and 99 cents each.

I made some really yummy soup tonight because I'm sick. I'll have to tell you about it some other time.

More Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is only 3 days away! I'm not sure if I have ever been this excited for Thanksgiving. The reason I am this year, is because I am cooking EVERYTHING. At first, I was like, "This will be a piece of cake!" but now I'm a little nervous about cooking so much food. Here is my menu, anyone have any tips for making it easier on myself?

-Two tofurkys. One marinated in sparkling apple juice, garlic, olive oil, and herbs. The other just basted with the soy sauce mixture on the tofurky box.
-Dumplings that come with tofurky feast.
-Gravy that comes with tofurky feast.
-Extra gravy.
-Garlic mashed potatoes with chives.
-Traditional stuffing.
-Organic cranberry sauce from a can.
-Biscuits made with nutritional yeast and herbs.
-Green bean casserole.
-Mashed sweet potatoes with ricemallow cream on top.
-Double layer pumpkin cheesecake.

I know I'm going to make the cheesecake the night before, but other than that, I don't know. Haha.

All I can say, is that I want all this food NOW.

What are you making?