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.

Homemade Tofu Bacon

This was an experiment. I enjoy the Fakin' Bacon from Lightlife, but those are about $4-5 for 5 long tempeh strips. Made at home with tofu, it came out to $3-4 for about one full pound of fakin' bacon.

I actually liked this stuff more than I thought I would. I just ate it all plain, but I could tell it would be great in a tomato and guacamole/avocado sandwich.

RECIPE
1 16 ounce package extra firm or firm tofu, water packed
2T Soy sauce (shoyu preferred, but regular soy sauce is ok.)
1t Liquid Smoke
2T Nutritional Yeast (optional)
1-3T oil, vegetable or another neutral oil (NOT sesame or peanut or olive)

1. Drain and press tofu.

2. Slice tofu into thin strips, similar to thick cut bacon.

3. Mix soy sauce and liquid smoke.

4. In a pan, heat vegetable oil and fry the tofu strips until crispy.

5. Remove from heat, then pour in the soy sauce/liquid smoke mixture.

--> okay, I need a larger pan, but I wound up making this mixture twice for my whole package of tofu. It was still good, but I love salt, so maybe this would end up being too salty for some people. In that case, mix a little water in the liquid smoke and soy sauce mix, and then pour half into the pan if you have a small pan like me and can only fit half the tofu in it.

6. Flip the tofu several times, making sure that both sides soak in the sauce. As the liquid disappears, you can add the nutritional yeast, again making sure both sides are coated. You could even mix the nutritional yeast in with the liquid before hand. The Nutritional yeast is not 100% necessary, but works out great.

7. Let tofu bacon rest on rack to drain and cool a little bit, eat and enjoy. Like I said, I only had it plain, but this would be great with breakfast or in a sandwich.

Breakfast: Mini-Waffles and Fakin Bacon

I made this a while back. Simple, toasted mini waffles with pure maple syrup and crispy Fakin' Bacon which is tempeh-based. I forgot the brand of mini waffles, but I do know I was VERY excited when I found them. Tasty treat!

First Post!

Hi there and welcome. Let's get down to the nitty gritty, shall we? What is this blog going to be all about? Food. Lots of food. All vegan food, as a matter of fact. This blog will have mainly photos: a mixture of food I make at home, food I have while going out to eat, and even various packaged products or other food items and kitchen appliances. I'll post as many recipes as I am able, of course abstaining from posting copyrighted material.

My hope is for this blog to motivate me to not only take more photos of the food I eat, but also to motivate me to cook more at home and experiment more with my food.

Well, enough talking, on with the food! Pictured above: a piece of soft pretzel from a New York Pretzel stand inside the NYNY Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV. I always ask for pretzels with no butter. What happens is I have to wait for 5-10 minutes, but I then receive a fresh and hot pretzel. In the picture above, the piece of pretzel is hanging out in some spicy mustard as a dip.

Next, a crappy picture of some food I made at home. One sliced and pan-fried apple smoked sausage from Field Roast Grain Meat Company, some brown rice, sliced and roasted brussels sprouts, and some crumbled soy feta by Sunergia Soyfoods. Overall, it was a tasty dish, but if I make this again, I would definitely add a sauce or tomatoes. It was a bit too dry. I am in love with the soy feta. I think it's great. Tangy, crumbly, and tastes close enough to feta for me. Of course, I haven't had feta in many years, so I could be wrong, but I think it is a lovely addition to salads and pasta.



This next photo is of a sandwich I made a couple of weeks ago. It consists of two toasted pieces of wheat bread from my local gas station, sliced tomato, Vegenaise spread on both slices of toast, some pan-fried Smokey Tempeh Fakin' Bacon strips, and a Original Boca Burger. For the burger, I microwaved it for a minute inside the plastic pouch to get heated and moist. I then pan fried it in a sautè pan and once both sides were slightly browned, I slathered a mixture of A-1 Original Steak Sauce (yep, it's vegan!) and chipotle sauce, and seared those flavors in. This was quite tasty:



Last, but not least, I made some miso soup today. I am convinced that miso soup can cure anything. Except maybe scurvy or a mouthful of sores. Oh, and gashes or bruises or anything other than a cold or a hangover. I make my miso soup much differently than most people and certainly nothing like how restaurants make it. I start by sautèeing some thin half moon onion slices inside a medium pot. Then, I toss in some pre-sliced baby bella mushrooms, a large finely minced garlic clove, a plop of ginger paste (about a Tablespoon), and a generous sprinkle of red pepper flakes. I then add 6 cups of water, cover and wait for the water to boil. Once it's at a rolling boil, I plop in about 1/3c of miso (I use a brown miso). Once dissolved, I sprinkle in some sliced scallions (green onions) and ladle some soup into a bowl. The bowl pictured holds 2 cups. I use dulse flakes which add some more iron and calcium.




Well, there it is. The First Post. Excellent. I'll be taking photos of dinner tonight, and hope to post them tonight as well. Until then, hope you enjoy the photos!