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!