A Hill of Beans

My love of beans has grown immensely lately. Is it because dried beans are dirt cheap (even organic ones!)? Or is it because they are really tasty and nutritious? Or is it because they are so very versatile? Well, I would have to say it's all of those reasons! So here's some bean-based meals I've made over the past week!!Northeast Nourishment: Boston Baked Beans, New England Brown Bread (both from VegNews), and Fresh Green Beans with CranberriesSouthern Comfort: Creole Black-Eyed Peas with Sweet Potatoes, Jalapeno Corn Bread, and Garlicky GreensIsland Delights: Caribbean Black Beans, Coconut-Mashed Yams, and Garlic Ginger Roasted Broccoli

While beans are my new favorite ingredient, I can't leave behind my other wonderful plant-based proteins!! I have been cooking a bunch this past week or so, and here's more evidence!Hot Sauce-Glazed Tempeh from Veganomicon, Jalapeno Cornbread, and Sauteed GreensVeggie Tofu Scramble with Roasted Potatoes and Wheat Toast from Cafe Berlin...I love Sunday breakfast!!Buffalo Seitan Wrap!!! I have created a new recipe!! I have been wanting to make Buffalo Wing-style seitan for a while, and I finally did! This wrap has vegan ranch, avocado, lettuce, red onion, and tomato along with the breaded and sauced seitan. Sinful.

Laura's Buffalo Sauce

2 cups cayenne hot sauce....Frank's is the best!!

1 Tbs soy creamer

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tsp paprika

4 cloves garlic

1 lemon, peeled

1/4 cup chopped yellow onion

In a blender, combine all of the ingredients and blend until completely smooth. Toss with seitan and serve hot with vegan ranch dressing! mmmmmm......salty and spicy goodness!!

And, because dessert is NEVER to be forgotten:

Sparkled Ginger Cookies from Vegan With a Vengeance

These cookies will make you smile, and everyone else, too! Especially if you toss in some crystallized ginger like I did :)

Go buy yourself some beans, folks!!

Fronch Toast and Cinnamon-Baked Apples. For Dinner!

Today is the 8th day of Vegan MoFo...I can't believe we're in the second week already!
Tonight, Steve and I needed some breakfast for dinner...go figure! I made Fronch Toast from VWAV, using some tasty baguette from Uprise Bakery here in Columbia. I had never made this before, so I wasn't quite used to making this with baguette instead of sliced bread, but it turned out pretty good! Not perfect, but everything's good with lots of maple syrup :) I served it with Scrambled Tofu, with onions, garlic, peppers, spices, local purple cherokee tomatoes (my absolute fav tomatoes! ) and cilantro. Screw you, eggs! Scram'fu will kick your butt! We also had some Cinnamon-Baked Apples, which I based on some baked apples I've had from Germany, to tie it all together. I am almost certain I will still be eating these apples we picked for all of my days. oh well! These are so fall-y and delicious...it's like the filling of apple pie, but quite a bit healthier! I will give you the recipe, I suppose! Cinnamon-Baked Apples (serves 2)
2 medium apples, thinly sliced
1 tsp Earth balance, cut into little cubes
1/4 c raisins
1/4 c chopped yellow onion
1 Tbs cinnamon...or more, if you're naughty
1 tsp nutmeg
dash of cloves
dash of salt
2 Tbs maple syrup
pinch of cayenne

Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine all of the ingredients in an oven-proof pan and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, stir the apples, and bake for 15 more minutes. Serve over toast or pancakes for a tasty breakfast! Or eat them by themselves, as they are super delicious!

We, of course, had to have a treat, too!
Introducing: German Chocolate Cake! This is simply the Basic Chocolate Cupcake recipe from Isa and Terry's VCTOTW, turned into a cake, with the Coconut Pecan Fudge Frosting, also from VCTOTW. I looooove German Chocolate Cake, and this is seriously amazing! I added a teaspoon of almond extract to the cake batter, and it made a really nice addition! Almond extract really brings out the flavor of chocolate, plus adds a little something extra for your taste buds. I think you should make this...if that's what you're into.

My First Homemade Apple Pie!

To commemorate the coming of fall and day two of Vegan MoFo...and my surplus of apples that Steve and I picked...today I made my first homemade Apple Pie!! This was also my first homemade crust, so I spent a lot of time on this baby! It was well worth the effort, however because it came out wonderfully! I used the Apple Pie recipe in The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick Goudreau, and I would highly recommend it! The crust came out nice and crisp, but not too dry, and the apples weren't over cooked or mushy--they still had a little bite to them. Next time, I would put more Earth Balance inside with the apples to give it a little more moisture to the apple filling, but otherwise, this was a killer pie! I must admit, we all ate it while watching Biden kick Palin's butt in the v.p. debates. perfect.

Here are the local apples in the pie shell....topless: The pie, unbaked, with the lazy lattice crust:
The pie, freshly baked out of the oven:
And, finally, a big warm slice served with Vanilla So Delicious "ice cream":
To DIE for :)

Also, I made my traditional breakfast for dinner tonight! I really could go on and on about having breakfast foods at dinner time, but I will show restraint. To start to chip away at my apple abundance, I made Apple Cinnamon Waffles, modified from the Ginger Pear Waffles recipe from Isa's Vegan With A Vengeance...I just subbed apple for pear, and subbed walnuts for the crystallized ginger. I also doubled the amount of cinnamon...I must admit, these were wonderful! A perfect use for apples and satisfying to the sweet tooth when blessed with some REAL maple syrup!

To go with these awesome waffles, I also made the Tempeh Bacon from VWAV...mmmmmmm smoky....and some roasted purple potatoes with chipotle seasoning and garlic. A great fall dinner for sure. Yay Vegan MoFo!

Yay for Potlucks!

On Tuesday night, my friend Kat had a bunch of people over for a vegetarian (and mostly vegan!!) potluck! I love the idea of potlucks: everyone sharing their great food and talking and spending quality time together and eating that great food. What more could you want?? Plus, Kat works for PETA, so you know she's a cool girl!

I made my FAVORITE tofu salad recipe...I'll share the recipe some other time...and it was all eaten by the time Steve and I left! I'd say that's a good sign! Here was my potluck plate, sans dessert:I had (clockwise from the top) a teriyaki noodle and broccoli dish, an Indian dal with jasmine rice cooked in with it, quinoa tabouli, whole wheat pita wedges with hummus, my tofu salad, and some slices of baguette I brought from our local Uprise Bakery! (There were also some chips and homemade salsa and guacamole, as well as some local melon, but those were just nibbles....) Then there was dessert! Kat made a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, and another guest made this amazing peach crisp that we ate warm! I cannot remember the last peach crisp I had, and I have never had a vegan one before, so I was supremely pleased needless to say! Plus, she used local peaches! DUH!!

A few nights later, some friends gathered for art night (a weekly artsy fartsy gathering among some friends) where we made paper mache things that will be turned into pinatas next week (I won't say what I made, but it's not PG.) For our gathering, I had to bake something, because that's the kind of weirdo I am. So, I went with my favorite thing pretty much ever: Raspberry Chocolate Chip Blondie Bars from Isa's Vegan With A Vengeance!! You seriously can't go wrong with these. Crowd pleaser and mouth pleaser. Cakey and gooey and fudgy and sweet and fruity and chocolately and vanilla-y. Too many "y's" to mention, really.

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Blondie Bars (makes 12-16)
For Raspberry Layer:

2 cups frozen raspberries

3 Tbs tapicoa starch

1/4 cup cold water

1/3 cup sugar

For Blondie Layer:

3 3/4 cup flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

6 oz. vanilla or plain soy yogurt

1/4 cup milk substitute (I used Silk creamer. damn!!!)

1/2 cup plus 2 Tbs canola oil

2 cups sugar

1 Tbs vanilla extract

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch pan. Make the raspberry layer: In a saucepan, combine all of the raspberry layer ingredients and stir until the tapioca starch has dissolved. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a low boil, stirring often. do this for about 5 minutes or until mixture is thick and gooey. Remove from heat and make the blondie layer.

To make the blondie layer: In a mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet, in batches, until a dough forms. Set aside 1 cup of this dough. Spread the rest into the greased pan. Spread he raspberry goo layer over the blondie layer, then sprinkle half of the chocolate chips over the raspberry layer. Drop the remaining blondie dough over the raspberry/choc chip layer...spread out so it covers a lot of the top, but there is still some pretty pink goo showing through. Sprinkle the other half of the chocolate chips over the top of everything. Bake for 35 minutes, then let cool and serve. Be careful, though...these are so delish that they pose a hazard to your health. From Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan With A Vengeance

Why don't I just eat these for every meal???

Also, I tried a new food last night: PawPaws! These JUICY fruits have a more tropical origin, but the ones that Steve and I ate were locally grown here in Mid-Missouri of all places! I didn't know what to expect, but I was freakin floored by these things!!! The taste is almost like halfway between a mango and a banana, and the texture is like a really soft papaya or mango, without the stringy bits. They are soooo sweet and have almost a vanilla-like flavor. In the words of Joey Lawrence: whoa!!! :) Here's the inside of the pawpaw....so gooey and yummy.
Here are the pawpaw seeds...they were stuck in the fruit randomly throughout, and were easily removed. They were the size of big kalamata olives, but felt like buckeyes. weird.
And here they are all innocent and ready to be eaten. You know you want one!