Tempehtation

VWAV's TLT Sammiches are incredibly delicious! Start with the Tempeh Bacon recipe; remember this has to marinate for at least an hour, but I find it tastes best if left to sit over night in the fridge. Once you've got that, it takes about 10 minutes to cook the "bacon" (which by the way holds zero resemblance to the animal version, but tastes very good all the same) and slap these monsters together. Imagine it: toasted bread, hummus, tempeh bacon, onion, tomato, lettuce, alfalfa sprouts... mmm my mouth is watering just describing it.

I served it along with another dish from VWAV: Herb-Roasted Potatoes. Now those were a big hit! I didn't have fresh herbs so I had to use dried; they were still very yummy but I imagine even more so had I been able to use fresh.

These recipes both made enough to have the same the next day. Certainly a left-over I look forward to! Because this is so tasty & satisfying, and better still - so quick & easy to make, I plan on coming back to this again & again.

rating:

5 pineapples!

burrit....ohhhh :(

Because it's something I've never had before & because I love burritos, I tried LDV's Black Bean & Sweet Potato Burritos. I had some kind of dish in NYC that involved black beans & yams, so I figured this should be just as tasty.

Well, it wasn't. It wasn't inedible, granted I only finished half my burrito. This might be a good dish for someone who wants to sneak healthy black beans & yams into their diet, but for someone like me who loves both and loves traditional burritos even more - not a good meal to make. That being said, I will not be revisiting this ever again. At least they looked pretty.

rating:

2 pineapples

..... also, if anyone knows how to fold burritos that information would be extremely helpful.

baker beware

The following cookies should only be baked for others; take great caution in being alone with these.

That Isa really knows her sweets! Her Big Gigantoid Crunchy Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Cookies recipe in VWAV is amazing. It calls for a considerably large amount of vanilla, which makes the peanut butter taste especially creamy. These came out a great texture, soft in the middle.

rating:

5 pineapples!

Tofu Potpie

I can never cook this without thinking of my sister - she LOVES this dish!

I'll admit - I've sometimes used frozen, ready-made pie crusts, but for this pie I used a recipe from LDV called Wolffie's Quick Whole Wheat Pie Crust. I doubled the recipe since I needed a bottom & top crust and substituted half the flour with whole grain pastry flour. It is one of the better crusts I've ever made.

I always use VWAV's Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy recipe while I'm baking the tofu, for which I typically whip up a marinade at whim. (This time it involved a bit of white vinegar, olive oil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, black pepper, and soy sauce.)

Thrown into the potpie were: carrots, peas, corn, potato, tofu, & the gravy. It baked at 350 for far too long so I kicked it up to 375 to get the top to brown, but was impatient yet, thus the rather light appearance of the top crust. Oh, and I always carve a design atop the pie. I have several photos of these pies - one with 26 that I made for my sister's birthday, one with a tree for Christmas, etc.

Here's what the filling looked like:

I let the gravy get too thick this time, that would have been easily fixed by adding water, but I was making this very late in the evening and was simply too hungry to care much about perfection - edible worked for me.

rating:

4 pineapples

Cafe Sunflower, Atlanta GA

I recently visited Atlanta, GA to pet the sharks and rays at Georgia Aquarium and to taste a variety of sodas at The World of Coca-Cola.

While in town, my boyfriend also took me to dinner at Cafe Sunflower.

We shared an appetizer of Vegan Spinach & Artichoke Dip:

This was tasty, but as you can see, more a dish for only one. I would definitely love to learn how to make this dip at home. Seems it might be easy enough... I should hunt for a recipe!

Then he had the Peppercorn Crusted Tempeh:

It seemed a bit over-spicey to me. The tempeh certainly packed enough punch, but the potatoes were highly seasoned as well. It looks pretty, but tasted like nothing special.

I resisted my urge to eat my favorite food (burrito - this one would have had fake steak, something I've not tried) and instead ordered the Vegan Polenta Napoleon:

Looks gorgeous, doesn't it? I ate the portabella, a few bites of the coconut corn cake, and half the mock ham. The veggies on the side were wonderful - cooked until just tender. It was a unique taste for me, but not one I'd ever crave.

Finally, we shared a dessert - Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Cake:

This was creamy and sweet and fantastic. It tasted so good I have sincere doubts I would be able to create something like it on my own.

If we had only appetizers and desserts, the meal would have been perfect!

I really appreciate having had the opportunity to try out this veg restaurant, and enjoyed sharing my thoughts (and pics!) of the experience here. I think I'll be posting more reviews of foods I eat that aren't things I've made myself.

rating:

3 pineapples

casserole

VWAV: Chickpea Broccoli Casserole.

This is a comfort food. Bland, but I like it that way, as the recipe states, one may add spices. I prefer it as is.

This bakes for 45mins, so it's more something to cook when you have things you'd like to walk away from the kitchen to accomplish. I've made this a few times before; it's a good go to recipe for left over frozen veggies. I also included spare cauliflower & mushrooms this time. For some odd reason I forgot to take a photo of it once I served some, so please pardon the lack of an "inside" view.

rating:

3.5 pineapples

pizza revisited

So I had some left-over pizza sauce & "pepperoni" that I thought I'd better put to use before it's time is up. I used the same dough recipe from LDV as before for the ingredients, but read Pizza Dough - A Novel in VWAV this time. I'm sure the instructions are relatively the same, but I certainly didn't follow them the first time I made pizza. This time, as pictured below, I actually kneaded the dough for 10 minutes straight.

And what a difference that made! Instead of tasting like stale bread, it was soft, with a more pizza crust-like texture. I piled on the aforementioned "pepperoni" and used the remaining Follow Your Heart "mozzarella," only I didn't grate it, just sliced it. It would have been better grated, but at the moment the grater I have is 'fine,' more for lemon zest and the like, too small for cheese. It was still delicious.

rating:

4 pineapples