Double Chocolate Walnut Pancakes

I adapted a recipe from Vegan With A Vengeance (VWAV). This pretty much tasted like dessert for breakfast. It reminded me of a moist chocolate cake and chocolate chip cookies. I'm freezing the leftovers to conveniently enjoy in the weeks to come!

Vanilla Fruit Tart

Topped with blackberries, kiwi, strawberries and peaches. The base was a vanilla flavored yogurt/custard concoction. The crust was flaky and delicious, but the sides sort of collapsed while baking. I wish I had a larger tart pan so that I could fit even more fruit on top!

Vegan Oreo Chocolate Cake With Buttercream Frosting

Yes, Oreos are really vegan! I had tons of fun making this cake. There are four layers to it and I used a whole package of Oreo cookies in various parts of the cake. My carnivorous coworkers gobbled this up in minutes!

Lemon Coconut Bundt Cake

Recipe from Veganomicon. I substituted some of the grated lemon peel for orange peel, which added some additional flavor depth. Who needs eggs and butter when something tastes this good?

Chili Cornmeal-Crusted Tofu

Recipe from Veganomicon. Served with brown rice and black beans. I think some sort of sweet dipping sauce would have gone well with this.

Yogurt Vanilla Pound Cake

Recipe from Veganomicon. Absolutely perfect and delicious! Slight hint of citrus and the sweetness was not overwhelming. I'm sure this was indistinguishable from a non-vegan pound cake and perhaps even better!

I was tempted to put a "healthy" spin to this recipe but resisted since this was meant to be dessert after all. Therefore no use of whole wheat flour or applesauce and no reduction of sugar. The recipe asked to use an electric mixer but I didn't want to over mix the batter so I just used a large wire wisk.

Asian Soba Noodle Salad

This was adapted from a Guy Fieri recipe (I was amazed too, he's not known for being vegan-friendly). Includes napa cabbage, carrots, red bell pepper, celery, green onions, fried tofu, soba noodles and dressed with a tangy and sweet dressing.

Veggie Tofu Breakfast Scramble

I guess the picture doesn't do this dish justice. This was a very filling mix of Tofurkey sausage, tofu, carrots, peas, corn, peppers and green onions! No eggs needed.

Herbed Home-Fried Potatoes

Making these in a cast iron skillet makes all the difference. The potatoes were generously seasoned with herbs, onions, and I added some maple syrup to sweeten the pot.

Blueberry Corncakes

Next time I make this I'll use fresh instead of frozen blueberries. The pancakes were delicious but the batter immediately surrounding the blueberries remained uncooked.

Cinnamon French Toast

Recipe from Vegan With A Vengeance. I added a little bit of cinnamon, nutmeg and ground ginger to the batter. I also used Dave's Killer Bread. Served with sliced strawberries and pure maple syrup.

Enchiladas With Chipotle Sauce

These are filled with refried beans, zucchini, sweet potatoes, onions, and corn. I blended some chipotle peppers with enchilada sauce and poured it all over. Delicious lunch for the rest of the week!

Tofu Spring Rolls With Peanut Sauce

Spring rolls are filled with sliced carrots and cucumber, green lettuce, rice vermicelli noodles, fresh mint leaves, and fried tofu. The sauce is a simple mix of hoisin sauce, peanut butter, water and crushed peanuts. My family couldn't get enough of these. They said it tasted just like what you'd get in a restaurant.

Vegan Chocolate Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

Oh yeah, baby. These were really good. A common problem with baking vegan cookies is the texture. Without eggs, achieving the optimum cookie texture (crispy on the outside, chewy and soft on the inside) can be difficult. However, these turned out perfectly. I think I'm starting to convince my coworkers that vegan doesn't mean tasteless! The cookies were incredibly rich and chocolate-ly and just plain delicious.

Southwestern Tofu Salad

This cold salad was a delicious mixture of sweet and spicy. Cumin, cilantro, limes, and chili powder helped flavor this healthy dish. The original recipe didn't include tofu, but I added some fried tofu cubes for additional protein. I just ate this plain but I'm sure this could be used as a filling for tacos or as a topping for tortilla chips.

Peanut Basil Stir Fry

A simple veggie stir fry with a peanut butter and basil sauce. I added a package of Morningstar Farms Chik'n strips for protein and some chili pepper flakes for spice.

Sweet and Sour TVP Meatballs

TVP stands for textured vegetable protein. It comes in little dried crumblies that you rehydrate and the resulting texture is much like ground beef. TVP doesn't have much flavor by itself but it readily absorbs any added liquid. These were very tasty and very filling. I just ate them alone, but these would go great in a sub sandwich or with spaghetti. Once again, the chewy texture was spot-on and I guarentee even meat-lovers would love these.

Mexican Over-Stuffed Peppers

As always, I used a variety of veggies in this dish. There's some mushrooms, onions, black olives, zucchini, and garlic. I also mixed in some soy chorizo (Trader Joe's <3) and brown rice. The melted stuff you see on the top is soy cheese. Usually I'm not a fan of faux cheeses but this particular brand melts really well, which makes all the difference. The leftover stuffing is like Mexican fried rice and tastes pretty good by itself.

Fried Un-Chicken

Regardless of the fact that anything fried is guaranteed to taste good, this was actually a really good facsimile. The coating was crunchy, the texture was authentic and the overall flavor was freakin' amazing. You can eat these in many ways, although this time I just ate them plain. I'm thinking next time I will form them into smaller pieces and coat them with a sauce to create some boneless "chicken" wings.

Cucumber Kimchi

My dad spent the majority of his Saturday making this kimchi. Both he and I prefer fresh kimchi as opposed to fermented varieties, which taste a bit more sour. I could seriously eat this all day long and not really feel guilty about it. The cucumbers were crunchy (and from our own garden!), the spice level was just right and there was a bit of sweetness as well. Good thing he made a couple gallons of this stuff.