Avalanche of Posts

I haven't stopped cooking or baking. I've just been lazy about posting them here. I'm pretty good about putting the pictures on my Facebook page though. Anyway, here comes a massive update and barrage of deliciousness with little explanation. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves (and they are saying "EAT ME!"). Try not to go comatose on me.

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.