Quesadillas!

These are surprisingly easy to make when you saute the Gardein beefless tips in a pan separately first, seasoning with taco sauce if desired. Then just slice them into smaller chunks, add them + plenty of Daiya cheddar-style shreds to the tortillas & fry in veggie oil. Voila! Serve warm & gooey with salsa & Better than sour cream!

Stuffed Manicotti Shells

The toughest part of this dish is just the patience to make it...being careful with the noodles, waiting for the homemade marinara to develop, and filling the shells before baking! This tofu ricotta filling with a dash of lemon and basil, paired with the mozzarella-style daiya as topping, could even fool a hard-core dairy lover.

Philly Cheeze

I used Not beef broth as the au jus over plain flavored seitan I had ordered online, added grilled peppers and onions with mozzarella-style & pepperjack Daiya over a vegan hoagie!

Breakfast Burritos

 Vegan breakfast burritos taste just like the old ones you remember, but are full of fiber and protein! I use sausage from Lightlife, homemade tofu scramble with earth balance, nutritional yeast, and other seasonings, salsa, and Daiya cheddar-style vegan cheese. I put fried potatoes in when I'm feeling frisky, too. For extra nutrition, I use 'low-carb' whole grain wraps, but plain ones taste more traditional.

The wheat wrap is on the left - my daughter prefers the plain white ones.

Breakfast Biscuits

A few mornings ago, I got up at 4:45am and decided to use my early-rising powers for good, and made these awesome homemade biscuits with all the fixin's ~ Smartlife sausage patties, Daiya cheddar-style cheeze, and tofu 'egg' slices - tofu fried up in earth balance, pepper, nutritional yeast, onion powder, and turmeric for color.

Chick'n Cordon Bleu

This took days of preparation, and was a huge challenge. But totally worth it! Had to marinate bacon strips in a mix of agave syrup, oil, and spices for a couple days. Then yesterday I took two bags of thawed Gardein Chik'n Scallopini and mushed two cutlets together to form one big one - making four big Gardein slabs in total. Then I marinated them overnight in white wine with bay leaves, garlic, pepper, and thyme. The filling is Daiya mozzarella-style shreds. These were -super- hard to work with and roll up; in no way like real chicken! Even being very careful, they almost fell apart on me. But once I did, I rolled them in a mix of bread crumbs, flour, and spices, and gently fried them. I created a very strong Agave-Wasabi dipping sauce - my version of honey mustard - and only needed a little to accentuate the dish. It is honestly the best "honey mustard" I've ever had, and there will soon be a large jar of it in my fridge. To showcase the dish, I just wanted very simple sides - asparagus sauteed in earth balance and couscous made with a little "Not Chicken" broth. A great well-rounded dinner! It definitely takes the place of the occasional fancy restaurant meals I used to enjoy!

This is one I tried with the 'bacon' strips on the outside, but even with a skewer it didn't seem to hold together that well.

The Ultimate Vegan Grilled Cheese

After battle of wits with Kierkegaard over ethics earlier this evening (for a Philosophy essay), I believe I inevitably lost. I needed comfort food. So I used up the rest of my homemade bread, sliced extra-thick, and grilled the hell out of it in earth balance - smothering it with an exorbitant amount of both cheddar- and mozzarella-style Daiya Cheeze shreds. Some always like their grilled cheese sandwiches with mayonnaise or tomato; I like the simplicity of just 'cheese' - as long as there's plenty of it. It was so gooey, I couldn't even believe it. I could only eat half.

I now bear the satisfied battle scars every good cook should have: sore feet, burned hands...and a distended stomach :)

Just look at this magnificent bastard. He was about 3 inches tall!

Pepperoni and Cheese Rolls

So, I hadn't had pepperoni/cheese rolls since my birthday party a year and a half ago, so I was swooning for some. I had gotten my favorite vegan cheese, Daiya - which actually stretches and melts, and passed the "four-year-old test" - in a shipment I ordered for Spring break. I also decided to try Yves brand 'pepperoni' slices (I usually make my own from seasoning up some facon--that's fake bacon, lol).

So I put two and two together, there...and decided to make pepperoni rolls :) I read online that they are found mainly in my state of West Virginia, and that they originated from Italian immigrants needing a meal that fits in your pocket to take into the coal mines with them. I'm not sure if the story's accurate, but the heavenly taste is.

I started making some homemade bread (still trying to perfect it - especially the baking time, as I've had to adjust to a new oven the past couple months). I made a double batch of dough to use half for the rolls - there were only six, but they were a fair portion each! The only qualm I had with these is that I might have added a drizzle of earth balance or oil to the fillings before rolling them up & popping them into the oven - they just lacked that trademark orange grease you get from real pepperoni! Next time, I'll use my facon pepperoni, because I make those with a sufficient amount of oil. Other than that, these were very delicious, and definitely satisfied my craving.

 

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A Vegan's First Year: Part 2

Here's a continuation of the highlighted Vegan dishes I've made over the past year. You can see here I'm getting slightly better with the photography ~ I have a friend taking classes that's helping me a bit. These photos should also bear witness to the fact that vegan eating is in no way dull! I'm going to be experimenting with different meat analogues this year (crab, fish, shrimp, and -gasp- -steaks!), as well as with techniques like grilling out with charcoal and wood chips! I really can't wait to grow some of my own foods, too (If I can find room! I will already have quite a bit of things in pots to save space. I may have to hit up a friend to plant a pumpkin patch in their backyard). It will be a magnificent challenge.

Various sushi fillings and shapes/sizes!

Spicy tofu with a dash of peanut oil

My favorite stand-by, cucumber-avocado

Inside-out rolls! Extra-spicy seared tofu with 'better than ceam cheese.'

Tempura sweet potato! Another favorite vegan sushi of mine.

My version of local Chinese take-out: beefless tips and broccoli, lomein noodles with water chestnuts and baby corn, and sauteed potatoes ~ with soy, ginger, white pepper and sugar.

My loaded pizza, with Daiya cheeze, olives, roasted peppers, the pepperoni I make from vegan bacon I buy, & favorite brand of vegan sausage crumbles - all on my yummy herbed dough I'm constantly trying to make perfect. Getting close!

Not-yo' Nachos! With Daiya (the deities' gift to vegan cheezes), all the classic toppings, and homemade guacamole (including sweet onion and a dash of lime).

Chili Cheeze fries! I cheated & used pre-made fries and chili. I would like to recreate this with fresher ingredients this year.

Four-layer Lasagna, with Daiya cheee...'nuff said.

Hush puppies...these were excellent. I think I will re-make these for the vegan fried fish, and maybe fried okra and other not-quite-healthy yums that are essential for a down-home fish-fry.

Red velvet X-mas themed cupcake. I may need to look into online emporiums for sprinkles with no confectioner's glaze; they are getting hard to come by around here.

Almost-Traditional Greek Baklava. I am Greek myself (1/4), so it made me very sad to see the honey go. But with proper preparation and spicing, the agave nectar really held up as a replacement.

Cherry turnover - these were super-easy to make, but it's only because I cheated. I know, I know. This spring/summer I'll try my hand at homemade puff pastry and fresh cherries.

Udon-noodle Stiry-fry ~ another dish I tried to emulate after my local Japanese steakhouse. It's not quite the same, but still awesome. I'm thinking about trying to obtain the actual recipe somehow.

Ultimate Blueberry Streusel Crumb Cake ~ a nice fresh 4 pounds of blueberries went into this!