buffalo tofu sandys, pasta....

tonight for dinner we had a rachael original penne dish with vegan cheez melted all over it :D with garlic bread. last night we had buffalo tofu sandwiches and a portobello salad out of the vcon.

birthday brunch...

my wife made me an uber sweet birthday brunch out of vegan brunch cookbook. tempeh sausage puff pastry, shiitake frittata, grapefruit, coffee, and blueberry/cranberry mocktail. gotta love the vegan wives.

new cookbooks...

so far i have received 2 new cookbooks for my birthday:
vegan with a vengeance (so i no longer have to read it off google books!)
vegan brunch

yum.

my pickle experiment

i woke up this morning to a note on the bathroom mirror that stated my pickles had overflowed. i was overjoyed.
indeed they are fermenting! so much so that they foamed up last night and blew liquid out onto the counter. the brine which was previously clear has become murky and the top shows signs of head like beer. beautiful. they smell delicious as well.

pasta jambalaya

pasta jambalaya from vegan express with a skillet cornbread.

vegan express pineapple curry noodles...

last night for dinner: salad rolls and corn and edamame salad. vegan express coconut pineapple curry noodles. i would add more curry next time!

pickles

in the old days pickles were made by using a seasalt/water brine to produce pickles out of cucumbers. in modern times pickles are fermented using vinegar and then pasteurized which removes all positive bacteria that aids in digestion. today i set up some cukes to pickle using the oldschool tried and true lacto fermentation method. i can hardly wait to see how these turn out.

aloo gobi

tonight for dinner rachael and i made aloo gobi, a slaw with pineapple/cabbage/apples and i made salad rolls with a chili rice wine sauce and peanut chili sauce.

baja tempeh tacos

tonight for dinner i had the excitement of cooking out of my brand new set of cast iron skillets! happy birthday me! rachael and i made baja tempeh tacos out of the vcon with spicy slaw, radish, lime crema, and avocado. we also made the vcon watercress, avocado, jicama salad with the spicy citrus dressing. it was dericious. also in the pics you will see my cooking apron purchased outside the vatican in rome, precious the dog, and 2 microwaves!!!

roasted potatoes, onions, garlic, red peppers....

a spin on a dish my mother made when i was growing up where she would throw italian sausage into the electric skillet with cubed potatoes, onions, and green bell peppers. obviously i sub tempeh for the italian sausage and i prefer the colored bell peppers to the green ones for flavor and nutritional content. i also oven roast mine and add a little spices and garlic cloves. the side dish is a sauteed cauliflower dish inspired by a dish in the vegan express...rachael kicked it up a notch by adding kalamata olives.

also in other news i got some birthday presents early and one of them was a set of cast iron skillets...look forward to some skillet recipes and thanks guys!

reuben sandwiches!

for dinner tonight i made reuben sandwiches with a green salad.

mother in law sandwich

the other day i was looking at varieties of sandwiches on wikipedia and i stumbled across something i'd never heard of called the mother in law sandwich which is apparently a regional favorite in chicago. essentially it is a hot dog bun with a tamale on it drowned in chili...i had to try it.

enchiladas

last night for dinner: potato/kale enchiladas from the vcon with spicy sour cream, spanish rice and guacamole.

corn pancakes, vegan clubs, and veganloaf.

Yesterday morning for breakfast we had the cornmeal blueberry pancakes out of the veganomicon. It took some slight tweaking to get the batter to the right consistency.
Then for dinner we made vegan club sandwiches with peppered tofurky, tempeh bacon, onion, lettuce, avocado, etc. and for a side dish we made a curried macaroni salad.

For dinner tonight we made a vegan meatloaf from vegandads blog along with horseradish potatoes and sauteed grean beans!

vcon black bean burgers

homemade black bean burgers with fire roasted jalapenos, a chipotle aioli, lettuce, onions on a widmer hefeweizen bun. a black bean and couscous herbed salad served on romaine. basil & rosemary grilled corn.





Vcon black bean burgers
Ingredients:
2 cups black beans, cooked or 1 15oz. can rinsed and strained
1/2 cup Vital Wheat Gluten
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 tablespoon Tomatoes Paste or ketchup
1/4 cup Water
2 tablespoons Olive Oil (if you’re going to sauté them)
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon Ground Cumin
1/2 small Onions
2 cloves Fresh Garlic
salt and pepper
¼ cup finely chopped cilantro (optional)

Mash the beans with a fork in a mixing bowl, not to the point of puree but to the point of no whole beans left. Add wheat gluten, bread crumbs, chili powder, tomato paste, water, cilantro, cumin but don’t mix yet. Mince garlic or press garlic into mix. Grate onions in using a cheese grater. Mix ingredients with fork and then knead with hands.

Turn out onto cutting board and cut into 4 or 6 even sizes pieces then roll into balls and then flatten into patties.

At this point you could sauté the patties in a pan, broil them in the oven, or grill them over medium heat. I suggest grilling.

Veg Exp Black bean and couscous salad
Ingredients:
1 cup couscous
1 15 oz. can black beans rinsed and strained
1 large celery stalk
1 colored bell pepper
¼ cup chopped green olives
½ cup chopped fresh parsley
2 tbsp chopped fresh dill
several fresh mint leaves chopped
2 scallions, green parts only, finely chopped
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp ev olive oil
salt and pepper
lettuce leaves to serve on

combine the couscous with 2 cups boiling water in a container with a lid and let stand covered for 10 minutes. At the end of 10 minutes remove lid and stir. Let couscous cool for 5-10 minutes.

Combine couscous with all other ingredients except lettuce and mix well. Serve over lettuce.

Corn
Ingredients:
2 ears corn
rosemary
basil
salt and pepper
margarine

peel back the husk on the corn and remove the hair. Rinse corn. Sprinkle with herbs and salt and pepper and put one tbsp margarine in then reclose husk around corn and wrap in foil. Grill until ready.

shamelessly stolen from gentleworld.org

"The vast majority of all cancers, cardiovascular diseases,
and other forms of degenerative illness can be prevented
simply by adopting a plant-based diet."

T. COLIN CAMPBELL, Ph.D. former Senior Science Advisor
to the American Institute for Cancer Research

Director, Cornell-China-Oxford Project on Nutrition, Health and Environment 1983-1990

"If you change to a vegan diet, and do it very vigorously,
you have enormous power. You can reverse heart disease.
You can prevent it. You can, I believe, prevent most cases of
cancer if you combine dietary changes with avoiding tobacco.
You could prevent probably 70% or 80% of cancers,
just by those steps alone. And, obviously, there’s a whole host
of other diseases that you would be able to live without."

NEAL BARNARD, M.D.
President, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine,
author, Turn Off The Fat Genes

"Patients fed a vegan (meat and dairy free) diet
during an intensive 12-day live-in program experienced
an average reduction of 11% in total cholesterol levels.
Most patients also lost weight
and had improved blood pressure levels."

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF NUTRITION, 1995

"A low-fat plant-based diet would not only lower
the heart attack rate about 85 percent,
but would lower the cancer rate 60 percent."

WILLIAM CASTELLI, M.D.
Director, Framingham Health Study;
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Blood cholesterol levels of vegetarians
compared to non-vegetarians:
14% lower

Blood cholesterol levels of vegans
compared to non-vegetarians:
35% lower

Risk of death from heart disease for vegetarians
compared to non-vegetarians:
Half

Chicken has about as much cholesterol as beef.
There is simply no escaping the correlation
between meat consumption and cholesterol levels.

JOHN ROBBINS
American author,
Pulitzer Prize Nominee for Diet for a New America,
(excerpt from The Food Revolution, Conari Press 2000)

fausage sandys...

italian fausage sandwiches with fire-roasted bell peppers and onions, grilled portabello, banana peppers, and garlic aioli. A spicy slaw. Grilled apples, kiwis, and bananas with aforementioned homemade strawberry viniagrette.