Tempeh Bac'n BLT

Whoa! Way too long with no posts!

Today I bring you a Tempeh Bac'n BLT: new-ish Earth Balance vegan mayo, Tofurky Maple Tempeh Bac'n, tomatoes, red onion, and spinach.

I enjoyed the EB mayo, pretty decent stuff. It is sold at a price that is way more expensive than Vegenaise in my area, so I just picked it up to try it out. I might get it in the future once in a while if it's on sale and ends up being cheaper than Vegenaise.

I've got a lot of pics stored up, just need to resize and upload to Flickr. I am also planning some pretty big new food adventures in the coming months, including some theme months and before you know it, Vegan Mofo will be here again!

I am trying to streamline my photo to blog system, and hopefully I will be able to get it down to a science so it doesn't take up too much time and I can focus on cooking and writing rather than the technical side of things.

My favorite go-to free online photo editing site shut down so it's been hard to get my groove back. I am playing with a couple of programs to see what is easiest and fastest for me.

So far I have enjoyed PicMonkey.

Stay tuned for more!

Pancake Pelotas with Smoky Maple Tempeh Bacon [Vegan Mofo]

Vegan Month of Food continues, only 4 more days!

So I got a donut hole/cake pop maker from Bella Cucina. The first thing in my head to make: "pancake pelotas" (as named by Mr. Coconut) -- aka waffle balls, aka Pancake Puffs, aka aebleskivers.

These were SO MUCH FUN to eat. I cannot emphasize that enough. The sheer delight of popping one of these adorable little waffle balls into my mouth with vegan butter, syrup and a piece of smoky maple tempeh bacon from Tofurky --- my mouth exploded with joy. It took a while to make these, but they were pretty easy: pour batter into holes, close the device, and then pop out the little puffs when done.

The tempeh bacon was quite delicious, also! I will DEFINITELY be making this entire breakfast again, hopefully this weekend.

I really want to make donut holes and/or cake pops with this thing too. I am also imagining all sorts of food I can make into adorable little round balls. Miniature food is awesome.

more pictures:

Homemade Bacon Bits

For the potato skins I made, I figured that they needed bacon bits. I've heard that Bac-Os(TM) are vegan (obviously check the ingredients as they can change and vary region to region), however I didn't really want to buy some. Instead, I decided to try my hand at making my own.

I bought some TVP, which I've used before in many dishes. I purchased it recently so I can give Taco Night another go.

I've made homemade tofu bacon before, so I just used those ingredients and applied them here.

I rehydrated 1/4c of TVP granules in about 1/4c of boiling water. Then I heated a pan up and poured about 1tsp of vegetable oil in it. I let the pan get very hot, then added the hydrated TVP.

Separately, I mixed together about 1/8c of soy sauce (use Kikkoman or better, no La Choy please!) with 1tsp of liquid smoke and a couple drops of Bragg's Liquid Aminos.

As the TVP fried up, I added the sauce mixture and continued to fry it until it crisped up a bit. Presto! Now you have some "bacon" bits to add to baked potatoes, salads, or any other dish you can come up with.