Chik'n Dinner with All the Fixin's

Wow. This came out of nowhere!

After a long time of thinking about what to make for dinner, I settled upon some Gardein Scallopini Cutlets. I wanted to try them in the George Foreman Grill.

For sides, I initially wanted brussels sprouts, but found that our frozen ones were waaaay too old and freezer burned, so instead I used mixed frozen veggies. I really wanted gravy, because I always want gravy, and figured some instant mashed potatoes would be a perfect vehicle for that. I also threw together a lemon-butter-parsley sauce for the veggies and chik'n. Finally, some whole cranberry sauce pulled everything together.

Gardein Beefless Burger Open-Faced Sandwich

I know, another product from Gardein? Yes! I really like Gardein products. These burgers were great! I did have these in a "traditional" hamburger way as well as this open-faced sandwich way.

For this dish, I sauteed a bunch of onion and mushrooms together, and made a sort of gravy sauce. I toasted some bread, pan-fried the burger, and put it all together with some peas on the side.

Thanksgiving 2011

America celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday and I was right there, eating along with everyone else. We had a ton of food, and tons of leftovers. Above is actually a shot of my plate this morning since I did not get a picture of the full plate yesterday.

I made chickpea cutlets and stuffing. Family supplied the rest of the food: mashed potatoes with celery root, diced rutabaga, wild rice with some other things in it, green beans with craisins, dinner rolls.

I also made a maple pecan pie recipe from
The Post Punk Kitchen:


A family member also made a wonderful salad with pomegranates, pears, raspberries, and grapes plus a wonderful vanilla dressing:

Chickpea Pot Pie With Whole Wheat Crust [Vegan Mofo]

I missed another day for Vegan Month of Food! Yikes! I'm actually doing much better than I anticipated I would, so that's great.

For today's entry, we have a delicious Chickpea Pot Pie. It was the first pot pie I've made from scratch, and it was AWESOME. Don't know why I haven't been doing this for years, because I love pot pie, and those Amy's pot pies can get expensive!

Ingredients:
onions, frozen mixed vegetables, butternut squash (diced), russet potatoes (diced/cubed), garlic (minced), wild rice, chickpeas.

For the crust, I kind of looked at other recipes I found on the internet, and I liked the recipe from Apartment Therapy @ The Kitchn's technique: freeze everything: the flour, the mixing bowl, the fork/cutting instrument, butter. I used only whole wheat flour and mixed in with a store brand of margarine that we recently found (it doesn't taste that great, I prefer Earth Balance for my stick butters). The crust was good, but I think I'd like some white flour in there next time, or even making a bottom crust as well.

For the sauce, I used Road's End Golden Gravy packet. It worked great. I used some flour to help thicken it after I added a lot of water for the rice to cook in. I seasoned with salt, thyme, and sage.

I finished in the oven until the crust was done. Excellent dish. I liked the wild rice as something different and the chickpeas went really well with everything.

Pizza Luce Brunch (again): Vegan Biscuits and Gravy with Tofu Scramble

Once again, a nice brunch at Pizza Lucé. This time I ordered the Vegan Biscuits and Gravy, which comes with a side of Tofu Scramble. I also added some vegan hollandaise on the side. The biscuits and gravy were very tasty, the tofu scramble was so-so. I don't think that they press the tofu very much because it was a bit watery. The hollandaise sauce was inedible -- thick to the point where you could hold it upside down and nothing would fall out. That was unfortunate as it's one of my favorite things to get while I splurge going out to brunch. Oh well, the biscuits and gravy were great.

Here's a close up:

Christmas 2007

Happy New Year!

To celebrate, let's look at some of the last big meals I had during Christmas 2007:


First off, a more traditional meal with a Tofurky, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, peas, stuffing, gravy, and dumplings:



This was my second Tofurky ever, and it was actually good. The dumplings that came with the Tofurky Feast did not work out for me, but it was fun to try them. I made the mashed potatoes (skin-on) and I made the extra stuffing, which was REALLY easy. I simply melted a lot of Earth Balance with veggie stock on the stovetop, and poured the hot mixture over the crispy bread chunks. The gravy was from the tofurky feast as well.

Next, a picture of some veggie sushi from another Christmas meal I went to:



The sushi consisted of avocado, carrot and cucumber wrapped with nori and sushi rice. A giant bowl of pickled ginger and the not pictured wasabi rounded off the appetizer. I cannot take any credit whatsoever for making the sushi, it came courtesy of Super Target.

There was also homemade bruschetta and the main star: pesto lasagna roll ups with a "meaty" sauce. Unfortunately, it was all eaten very quickly before I had a chance to take any pictures because it was SO GOOD. I promise that sometime VERY soon I will recreate the recipe and take many photos.

There was also an excellent vegan chocolate mousse, but no pictures.

More food from 2007 to come!

Thanksgiving 2007

Wow! It's been a whole month since the last post?!?!?! Sorry for the disappointment. I honestly have not felt inspired to cook much plus I've been quite busy. Fear not! Thanksgiving photos are here!

The whole meal:



Starting with the mashed potatoes & gravy, going clock wise: cranberry sauce, roasted fingerling potatoes, celebration roast, and stuffing.

Mashed Potatoes were homemade, as was almost everything else. I mixed a lot of veggie broth and almost 2 sticks of Earth Balance, then blended it all together until creamy, adding salt and pepper as needed.

Stuffing was almost the same: lots of veg broth and Earth Balance, salt and pepper, and I also added sage and garlic salt mix for more flavor.

Gravy: veggie broth, Earth Balance, flour, browning sauce.

The "meat" was a Celebration Roast which I LOVE. I was not much of a fan of Tofurky Roast, though I want to try again now that my cooking skills have improved a lot.

Roasted Fingerlings: halved or quartered, tossed in olive oil, chopped rosemary and garlic salt and pepper, placed on cooking sheet until tender and a little brown on some sides.

Cranberry sauce: from a can. :P

Overall, quite successful, though I didn't have any veggies. Probably the most carb-tastic Thanksgiving I've ever had. I almost always fill up on the veggies, but I was just craving more carby things so that's how my plate wound up.

Noodles with Beefy Gravy, Mushrooms, Onions, and Peas

I craved a gravy dish the other day so made this up as I went along.

What You Need:

1.48oz dry pasta (I used Whole Wheat spirals)
50g onion
120g mushrooms (I used sliced baby bellas)
1/2c ricemilk (or other milk)
3t Whole Wheat Flour (or all purpose white)
65g peas
1 veggie burger, crumbled

To Taste:
Bragg's Liquid Aminos
Salt
Pepper

Okay. I started by cooking the pasta normally, drained and rinsed and waiting for the gravy.

I sautéed the mushrooms and onions and added a microwaved veggie burger (I microwave to thaw) which I cut into pieces in a pan. Then I added some of the flour, as well as some rice milk, stirring constantly. I added the rest of the flour and milk, as well as some Bragg's, salt, and pepper. I dumped the peas in to mix with everything. It took some time to get just the right consistency fo the gravy.

I poured the gravy over the pasta on a plate. This was one large serving.

Overall, I need to improve the gravy. It was still a little heavy on the flour taste, but the Bragg's worked really well. Next time I may try adding butter or fat of some sort. Interesting experiment.