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.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Vegan cookie baking can be a tricky affair since the absence of real butter and eggs can ruin the crispy and chewy texture (they turn out more like muffins). Fortunately that didn't happen here and these were yummy! I used Earth Balance Margarine to replace the butter and instead of eggs I used a mixture of ground flax seeds and water. The flax seed mixture provided the required amount of moisture, protein and fat that eggs would otherwise offer.

Banana Walnut Bread

For baking quickbreads like this one, I usually replace the eggs with unsweetened applesauce. The loaf doesn't bake up as high, but you do end up with a very dense and moist bread. The original recipe comes from a modest 1940s cookbook that I picked up from a library book sale over 10 years ago. What a great find!

SLT Hummus Wrap

Sorry bacon, you have been replaced by seitan. When I was making the seitan I was trying for a barbeque chicken flavor. Of course it didn't taste exactly like meat, but it was still quite tasty. Besides lettuce and tomato, I added some vegan cheese, pickles, onions and mustard. I skipped the usual fries/chips and cut up some watermelon instead. It's scary how much watermelon I consume during the Summer months.

Veggie Overload Zucchini Lasagna

I acquired a couple huge zucchinis from a co-worker and this is what I came up with. Instead of using pasta to create the lasagna layers, I used thin slices of zucchini. The ricotta "cheese" is actually shredded tofu. The filling consists of tomatoes, corn, olives, carrots, bell peppers, onions and mushrooms. Man, I love veggies.

Indian Cabbage and Peas

Two of my favorite veggies on one plate! This dish had a lot of spice but wasn't spicy. The trick to Indian cooking is to cook at a lower heat for a longer period of time so that the delicious spices (cumin, turmeric, coriander and etc.) are able to release their flavors. Sometimes I have the tendency to add too many ingredients to a recipe, but I'm glad I didn't do it this time. This was simple and delicious.

Chik'n and Broccoli Pizza

With a new digital camera in-hand I am finally ready to restart my food blog. This time around I'm not going to bother with the recipes. The focus will be on pictures of my meals, since that's what people like to see anyways. I've been experimenting with a lot of vegan cuisine lately so I think I'll have plenty of stuff to share with you. Let's eat!

Yes, this pizza was as delicious as it looks in the photo. The crust was made from scratch (healthy whole-wheat!) and the sauce is "cream" based (tofutti cream cheese + soy milk) with some pesto mixed in. No fake cheese here, just fresh veggies and a bag of Morningstar Farms Chik'n Strips.