Vegan MoFo day 3- tempeh tuna melt sandwiches

Here's tonight's dinner... well Chef Bab didn't really help all that much (he's more of an inspirational chef than functional one).

I, Peggy, made tempeh "tuna" melts. The bread is from the other day, the cheez is from Ultimate Uncheese cookbook, recipe --> Gooey Grilled Cheez. This is a great, quick noochy cheez sauce/spread. I also whipped up some tempeh tuna salad. I greased the bread up with some EB, layered on the yummy cheez and the tempeh salad, then grilled in a castiron skillet. I served this with some yummy steamed yellow and green beans.

Tempeh Tuna Salad:
ingredients:
1 block tempeh- steamed and smashed with a fork
splash malt vinegar
1/4 med red onion- diced
1/2 stalk celery- diced
1 Tb sweet pickle relish
1/2 Tb kelp flakes
1 clove garlic- crushed
dash onion powder
salt and pepper
1/4 c (more or less) vegan mayo (I used a combo Trader Joes reduced fat mayo and Vegenaise)

-After steaming the tempeh, I splashed on some malt vinegar and then allowed to cool in fridge before I mixed in all the other ingredients.
  

roasted eggplant muffaletta on homemade ciabatta bread and crunchy broccoli salad

Tonight's dinner was totally amazing, if I may say so myself! :) The hubby says so too.

I've been craving ciabatta bread (and having frequent day dreams in regard to one I made maybe a year back) following a recipe I found somewhere online. Well, I did a little searching and found the recipe again. I remember this bread being pretty fool-proof to make (I'm not generally very good at making bread). I located the recipe --> here.

I had a stay-at-home sunday today, the perfect kind of day to let some dough rise on the counter while lounging around trying to stay warm (and smell fresh bread in the house!). This bread is so easy to make, definitely as easy as I remember!!! The only snag was the directions call for measuring by weight... I don't have a scale so I kinda guessed with measurements. I used 4 cups of flour (Organic Unbleached White All-Purpose), and about 2 tsp salt, but then the dough was too dry and I needed to add way more than the suggested 2 cups of water. I probably used around 3 cups of water total in order to create a real goopy wet dough/batter/mixture. I'd def recommend adding water until the dough is the consistency of slightly thick pancake batter.

Also, I baked mine on a pizza stone. I was hoping that would assist with nice thick crust ( and it did!! Score.). This came out way way yummy! The inside was chewy, flavorful and full of delightful big bubbles, with a thick, chewy crust.  With such yummy bread, dinner just needed to be sandwiches. I decided to roast some eggplant, and use other sandwich fillings like olive salad and roasted red peppers.

Great dinner. I served them with our most favorite side dish: crunchy broccoli salad. I didn't really set out with any recipe in mind, but I'll post what I did this time. This was my type of dinner, slightly indulgent (what's more indulgent than fresh bread??) and hearty, but still full of veggies!


roasted eggplant muffaletta sandwich

ingredients:

1 loaf fresh made ciabatta bread 
1 eggplant, sliced into thin rounds
olive oil
balsamic
spices
roasted red peppers (I used jarred)
muffaletta chopped olive salad mix
vegenaise

-set oven to 425 degrees
-marinade slices of eggplant in olive oil balsamic and spices (i used a garlic herb spice mix) for 1/2 an hour
-roasted eggplant for 10 min, flip then roast for 5 more minutes
-slice bread, slather with olive salad and vegenaise, then stack on veggies!! yum :)


(most amazing) crunchy broccoli salad

ingredients:

2 crowns broccoli, broken into small florets (don't use stem, save for something else! OR ELSE!)
1/4 sweet onion, sliced into thin ribbons
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup roasted peanuts
1/3 cup bacon bits (obviously vegan variety, the store brand around here just happen to be vegan anyway)
vegenaise, mustard, poppy seeds, agave nectar

-mix dressing together (i didn't really measure, 1/2-3/4 c. vegenaise + 2 Tb mustard +1 Tb poppy and  squirt of agave), season with black pepper and salt
-add with everything else (except bacon bits), let sit in fridge for at least 30 min, add bacon bits at last minute so they stay nice and crispy
-WARNING: this stuff is addictive! 

Enjoy :) 

Make the bread! Do it!

the vegan ELVIS sandwich :)

this is what i made my hubby for lunch today. an epic elvis-inspired sandwich (served with a lil cup of amy's no-chicken noodle soup!)

Vegan Elvis sandwich:
 
ingredients:

-2 pieces of bread
-crunchy peanut butter
-banana
-tempeh bacon (homemade of course! recipe --> here)

1) fry the tempeh bacon,
2) construct epic sandwich
3) cook in cast iron skillet til crispy and hot
4) eat! yum yum yum

vegan sausages- improved!!

homemade sausage w/ sauteed onion and peppers on a hoagie roll, and curried potato salad

I've really enjoyed vegandad's sausages, I've made them several times and enjoyed the satisfying meaty texture. The past couple times I've made them, I decided to start playing around with some additions/omissions.... (I LOVE playing with recipes) and well, the recipe keeps getting better and better! Today I used garbanzo beans instead of the pinto called for in the original recipe, and added in grated onion, the addition of the onion keeps them moister and allows for a much improved texture. I've definitely also upped the spices considerably. With the garbanzo beans coarse-ness, I think we've found that these are  the best sausages yet. Here's what I did:

homemade sausages

1/2 c. garbanzo beans
1/4 c. nutritional yeast
1 c. bean cooking liquid (or veggie broth or water)
2 Tb soy sauce
1 Tb olive oil
2 cloves garlic-crushed
1/4 c onion- grated
1 1/2 tsp fennel seed- crushed
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp liquid smoke
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp sage
1 tsp rosemary
1 1/4 c. vital wheat gluten

-turn rice cooker onto "steam" setting, allow to heat up
-crush/mash beans until none are left whole, stir in all liquid ingredients, then add spices, then add vital wheat gluten-- dough should be very moist and spongy
-cut 6 square pieces of aluminum foil
-separate dough into 6 even pieces, form log shapes, then wrap up in foil, twist in edges into seal off
-steam for 35 min
-allow to cool in fridge, then cook in variety of ways (in frying pan, on grill, chopped up in stir fries, etc..)

 Tonight I fried the sausages in some onions and peppers, and ate my hoagie with lots of ketchup. The hubby said mustard is only way to go... we agreed to disagree and stuffed our happy faces :) :)

"egg" salad sandwich

I wanted a hearty healthy lunch today, so I turned to a cookbook that I haven't used in a quite awhile. I got American Wholefoods Cuisine several years ago when I first started cooking for myself. I found a nice recipe for making an egg salad with tofu. Basically, I pressed the tofu, then cut it into lil cubes, then mixed with chopped celery, vegenaise, mustard, dried dill and curry powder. I seasoned it with a bit of salt and pepper. Great flavor and texture very similar to the egg salad my mom made me as a kid.

For my sandwich, I used Heidelberg multigrain bread, piled on shredded carrot, arugula, a roasted red pepper, the "egg" salad and some spicy mustard. Great lunch :)

Vegan MOFO day 15- Sloppy Joes

Tonight's dinner is one that I wouldn't normally blog about, but it's MOFO and I am trying to blog everyday. I made sloppy joes and I'm not particularly convinced that I like what I did. I used reconstituted TVP and a bunch of other ingredients... they were definitely edible, but I wouldn't go out of my way to make them again. The hubby liked dinner and said that I'm too harsh of a critic. I think I don't love the taste of TVP, and since it is highly processed, I doubt I'll be running out to buy any more when this bag is used up.

I started with cooking up a lil onion and garlic, then I added canned tomatoes, Bragg's liquid aminos, bbq sauce, ground black pepper, chili powder, hot sauce, some spicy mustard.... and the TVP. We ate it on some bread.

If anyone has a good vegan sloppy joe recipe, please pass it along to me....

I also made coleslaw, that came out super yummy! (shredded cabbage, salt, pepper, sugar, apple cider vinegar and vegenaise, I didn't measure anything but wish I had, because this was tangy and yum yum yum!)

Vegan MOFO day 11- Sunshine burger and Potato nuggets

Tonight my hubby made me dinner :) I like it when that happens. I think he was happy about his lunch, so he wanted to me nice to me. He made our favorite kind of veggie burger SUNSHINE burger. These are the only frozen burgers you can buy without weird ingredients, they are also an independent company, which is totally awesome. Tonight we had their 'southwest' burger, topped with some Daiya cheddar, some roasted garlic hummus, red onion and some bbq sauce. We also ate some potato nuggets.

Definitely not a fancy dinner, but I'm happy :)

Vegan MOFO day 10- Lunch To-Go

Tonight's dinner was a seriously boring one, so I didn't feel like blogging about it. I was home alone without the hubby, and I never do very good cooking anything special if I don't have anyone to cook for...

After I ate my dinner, I got a flash of inspiration to get the hubby's (and my) lunch ready for tomorrow. Danny is a pretty serious tempeh fan, so I figured I'd make him a tuna-ish tempeh salad sandwich. I didn't use any sort of recipe, just kinda threw a bunch of yummy stuff together. I think the end product will make him happy at lunchtime tomorrow

tuna-ish tempeh salad
ingredients:
1 block tempeh
1/4 red onion- finely diced
sweet relish (~2-3 T)
kelp flakes- a couple shakes
kalamata olives, chopped (~2 T)
pumpkin seeds, chopped (~1 T)
salt and black pepper
vegenaise (~ 1/4 c)

-i steamed the tempeh on the stovetop for about 15 minutes, then i smashed it up with a fork.
-i combined all the ingredients in a bowl, i didn't really measure anything... then i moistened it up with vegenaise and put it on bread for a sandwich

I packed the hubby's lunch up in our cool To-Go Ware two-tier. I packed up some cut up carrots, a honeycrisp apple, a Larabar and some walnuts. I'm good to the boy :) My lunch wasn't as cute in the To-Go Ware three-tier, so I'm not gonna show it to you...

all packed up

tempeh reuben sandwich & marinated zucchini salad

This was a quick dinner I made for my husband :) It's a tempeh reuben sandwich, for the tempeh: I used tempeh bacon that I had marinating in the fridge, layered with sauerkraut, and dressing (vegenaise, horseradish and ketchup). The bread is Heidelberg Rye :) yum yum. The salad is thinly sliced zucchini and fresh garlic marinated in a vinaigrette for a couple hours.

The hubby says "that was bangin!"

breakfast muffin sandwiches!!!!

I made some sausages with the Vegan with a Vengeance. Tempeh-Bean sausages, yum yum yum. Right when they were done cooking, I added a drizzle of maple syrup. We ate them on 12 grain english muffins with some avocado! Good breakfast!

Curried Tofu Salad

We went to a friend from my work's house for a barbeque on Friday night, when I asked what I could bring to share, she suggested something with tofu. I am usually apprehensive to serve tofu to people to non-vegan/vegetarian eaters. Tofu gets a bad rap for 'being bland,' so I knew I wanted to make something with lots of flavor! Curried tofu salad :) yummy! Good with crackers, and as a sandwich filling.

ingredients:
1 1/2 blocks extra firm tofu (frozen, thawed, squeezed dry and crumbled)
1/4 onion chopped
1/4 cup raisins
1/2-3/4 cup vegenaise
1/4 cup mango chutney
1 tsp turmeric
curry powder and red pepper to taste

'chicken' salad sandwich

i've had a nice relaxing weekend, full of cooking! for me, thats the best kind.

this is a yummy sandwich i made the other day: i made a 'chicken' salad with leftover maywah chicken drumsticks, celery, onion, spices and vegenaise, then there's some fakin' bacon on there, and spinach. we used heidelberg french peasant bread. (heidelberg bread is the best, only a handful of ingredients, made in herkimer and DELICIOUS!)

tempeh reuben sandwich

tempeh reuben sandwich, w/ vegenaise, ketchup, horseradish russian dressing, sauerkraut, follow your heart monterey jack and grilled tempeh.

Tofu Salad Sandwich

Whenever I use tofu in a recipe, I almost never use the whole block. With any leftover tofu, i cut it into thick slices, put into a freezer bag and stash in the freezer.
The freezing makes the tofu all chewy and changes the texture completely.

Then I always have frozen tofu on hand for tofu salad :)

To defrost the tofu: put in a bowl, pour boiling water on tofu, let sit until completely defrosted.


For salad:
-defrosted frozen tofu
-chopped onion
-tamari sauce
-chopped nuts: i used pistachios, almonds and walnuts
-vegenaise
-salt, pepper, curry powder

All the amounts depend on how much tofu I use... I always just put a splash of tamari sauce in, a sprinkle of spices, enough nuts to make it crunchy... And LOTS OF VEGENAISE!