Crispy Cat Candy Bars

Crispy Cat Candy Bars

I received a wonderful package in the mail a few weeks ago from Sofia at Christie Communications. It was a trio of Crispy Cat Chocolate Bars!! I couldn't wait to dive right in and eat them all but I took my time eating them and made sure that Peter was around to share them with me.

First up...Mint Coconut: this one is probably our favorite of the 3. It's had a nice light texture compared to the other 2. The mint is very overpowering against the coconut flavor which is my only complaint.

Second up...Toasted Almond: much denser then the Mint Coconut but almondy good. Really delicious. I liked the thicker consistency of this bar more then Peter did. The flavor was great considering I'm usually not a fan of almonds in baked goods/chocolates.

Third and final...Roasted Peanut: Unlike my usual dislike of almonds in sweets I LOVE peanuts in my sweets. Especially with chocolate. I can't get enough of the combo. I like it so much that I sometimes might break off a piece of a chocolate bar and dip it into the peanut butter jar. So I was super excited to try this bar as well. It is just like the Toasted Almond bar in denseness which is perfectly fine by me. I like a chocolate candy bar with some heft it turns out. The peanut flavor wasn't overpowering which was a nice change compared to most peanut chocolates. Just a nice treat.

Lucky for me I just started to notice that one of the Whole Foods by me has started carrying them so it looks like I will be buying these again for a special treat every once in awhile.

Well I'm off to get ready for a wedding so a big CONGRATS TO MY FRIENDS STEVE AND BECKY ON THEIR WEDDING DAY!!!!!

Pizza Pizza

Buffalo Pizza

I was surprised to learn just now that I never posted about these pizza's. The dough and the Buffalo Pizza are both tester recipes for Joanna's upcoming cookbook. The crust was fun to make. It has simple instructions and it was something that I could do during the day while Reno was ransacking our home without any troubles at all. Its a very nice and smooth dough to work with as well. Cooked, the crust is thin, crispy and tasty.

If you couldn't tell by the amount of buffalo sauced posts I've made I'm obsessed with the stuff. So when Joanna posted a recipe on her testing site for Buffalo Pizza I was super excited. I was also super excited after I made the pizza and ate it. It was good. Very good. I would have though my favorite part would have been the Buffalo Sauce but it was actually the red onions. I <3 red onions. I <3 them with anything buffalo..especially my Buffalo Tofu Salad.



Potato-Pepper Pizza

The dough recipe makes 4 pizzas. Besides the Buffalo Pizza I also made my own creation. Tomato sauce, peppers, thinly sliced fingerling potatoes, onions <3, garlic, herbs. Delicious.

Sweet Avenue Bakeshop

Sweet Avenue Bakeshop Cupcakes

I am very lucky. I have a vegan cupcakery not too far from where I live. I don't frequent them often simply because I like to make my own cupcakes. That said, a few weeks ago I decided to stop by the Sweet Avenue Bakeshop in Rutherford, New Jersey since I was in the area visiting my Italian in law relatives and I was also in the mood for cupcakes and didn't want to make them.



Raspberry Swirl

My sister was coming over that night so I asked her what flavor she would like and this is what she picked. It was the prettiest of the bunch but then again I'm a sucker for anything pink. I didn't get a chance to taste this flavor but I will buy it again the next time I pay a visit. It just looks too good not to try it.




Sexy Sadie

I bought two of these because they are my favorite and Peter wanted one too! It is a delicious red velvet cake with a super yummy cream cheese frosting. I could eat only this cupcake for the rest of my life and be a very happy and heavy girl.



Jet Black

Chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, chocolate sprinkles. It's a chocolate lovers dream.



Snowball

These come with either chocolate or vanilla cake with coconut icing and shredded coconut on top. I chose chocolate. I wish I chose vanilla. Simply because Peter and I split the Jet Black and Snowball the next night for dessert and it would have been nice to have a vanilla cake just for variety.

If you ever find yourself in North New Jersey you must stop by this adorable shop.

2 for u.

Red Bean, Butternut and Millet Veggie Burger

You are getting 2 for 1 today in B36 Kitchen-land.

The other night I was actually in the mood to cook something from scratch and decided that the burger above would be our dinner. I'm chopping up and cooking some butternut on the stove top. Chopping onions and garlic. Boiling the millet. Adding spices. Then I go to the closet to get the can of Red Kidney Beans. First I must say that I had just gone food shopping earlier in the day and while walking down the bean aisle I asked myself if I should pick up some cans of beans. I said to myself "no, you have plenty of beans at home" then continued to walk on past the beans. Now back to looking in the closet. I look toward my bean shelf and .........no beans......zero......none......no beans. I search and search the rest of the closet. Maybe I didn't put the beans on the bean shelf the last time I bought them. No beans...zero....none....no beans. Sigh. Peter comes home and I tell him about the no bean situation and he offers to go to the store and buy some. I tell him not to bother I'll just get some beans the next day and we will eat them for lunch, which is what we did, except it was he who picked up the beans.

So instead of veggie burgers for dinner we had..



Parsley-Pinenut Pesto

Pesto! Ah delicious pesto. Thank goodness during my shopping trip I picked up 2 bunches of parsley. I have no idea why I bought those 2 bunches. Maybe it was the universe telling me that I wasn't going to be able to make what I wanted to make for dinner that night.

Thanksgiving Day and Day After

Thanksgiving Day After Meal

Our Thanksgiving's alternate each year between mine and Peter's family. Regardless of where they are I like to make us a Thanksgiving meal "my way" afterwards which excludes all meat, dairy and eggs. This year was know different. We dined on Balsamic-Rosemary Roasted Root Vegetables (a Thanksgiving staple for me), Green Beans Almondine, Corn of the Cob, and Seitan Cutlets smothered in Golden Gravy. The Golden Gravy is a tester recipe for Joanna's next Yellow Rose Cookbook. It was my second time this week making it already it's that good.



Balsamic-Rosemary Roasted Root Vegetables

I <3 this recipe so very much. It's based on a recipe from an issue of Bon Appetit that my mom received a few years ago and we have been making every year since. I don't follow the recipe anymore but it's the same basic idea. Roast whatever root vegetables you want with whole cloves of garlic and rosemary (fresh is best) then add the vinaigrette to it when it's done. I now just dump some balsamic vinegar, lemon zest and lemon juice into a cup without measuring and dump it over the veggies. I leave out the oil because the veggies were roasted in enough oil already that they don't need anymore added to it.

This year I roasted Fingerling Potatoes, Acorn Squash, Parsnips and Rutabaga along with some garlic cloves. Usually there are Brussels Sprouts and Beets in there but I didn't feel like going through the trouble since I had lots of other food to make for the real holiday.

This was the second time I bought this dish to my in-laws and it always gets rave reviews and everyone asking for the recipe.




Caramel Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream

My Daring Bakers Challenge turned into what I was bringing to the dessert table on Thanksgiving. Read about this particular dessert in the post below.




The Dessert Table

The only thing vegan there were my cupcakes.

Daring Bakers

Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting

Phew! I took like a 1/2 month break without even realizing it! What's really been happening is that instead of blogging at night I've been knitting a purple and green blanket for myself. It's taking along time.

But I make my grand return with my Daring Bakers challenge! I was really upset that I had to miss last months pizza one due to my little Reno getting real sick at the end of the month so I was super happy to make this one.

It is a Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting by Shuna Fish Lydon. I had to make my own caramel syrup for this one! It was so fun, scary and dangerous. I luckily came out of that process unscathed with the help of oven mitts and a pink plastic cutting board to protect me from the bubbling hotness that is homemade caramel syrup.

The cake itself was really straight forward and easy. I just subbed soy milk for the milk, Earth Balance for the butter and some egg replacer for the eggs. I would have like to have used some soy yogurt instead of the egg replacer but I have a box of the stuff that needed using up. The cake came out sweet, slightly dense and had a very old fashioned taste to it.

I was really looking forward to making this into an actual 9 inch round cake but when I realized that I would be bringing this for dessert on Thanksgiving I figured cupcakes were the way to go just so know one would have to mess around with cutting up a cake.

All in all this was a great success and a recipe I will be keeping for a very long time.



Host for this months challenges were:

Dorlores of Culinary Curiosity
Alex of Blondie and Brownie
Jenny of Foray into Food
Natalie of Gluten-a-Go-Go

4 ingredients.

Refried Black Bean Taco

I wasn't sure whether to call this a taco or a quesadilla. I went with taco. Since we ate it like a taco and not a quesadilla. I've been trying to think of new things to feed Reno so I bought a can of Amy's Refried Black Beans and some soft whole wheat tortilla with the hopes that if I heated up the beans and spread it on a tortilla and rolled it up she would eat it. Well she did. She liked it a lot. Thing is though she can't consume a whole can of refried black beans so I made a version of her dinner for us with some brown rice and diced fresh tomato. It was really good. I mean really good. So good that I might keep a few cans of that stuff around for days when I don't feel like thinking about food and what to make.

We aren't big canned food eaters at all but I'll make an exception here. The only canned items we ever buy are beans (we buy dried also), tomatoes, chipotles and the occasional artichoke hearts. I really believe in making foods from scratch but with a child you have to make exceptions here and there because sometimes you have no time at all for a scratch meal. Especially when she is yelling "mammamamammamammamamammama" or "ninininininininininininininniiiii" which usually means "I"M HUNGRY" or she just hangs from the tray that is attached to her highchair and screams like the monkey that she is.

Shells and Chreese

Shells and Chreese

You either love or hate this boxed mac and cheese from Roads End Organics. I happen to LOVE it. Its my favorite thing to eat on a rainy afternoon when I want to sit around and do nothing. A lot of people like to doctor theirs up by adding garlic powder and such. I just like a bit extra milk, recently oat milk, and earth balance. Plus lots of black pepper. In my opinion it doesn't need anything else.

I've only ever had the Cheddar Style Shells and Chreese so I can't say much on their other products but I'll get around to trying them one of these days.

Reno also loves this stuff. When I ate it the other day after I gave her her lunch she was climbing all over me for it. I gave her a taste and that was the end. I had to give her many many tastes after that. So now I have to share my Shells and Chreese with her.

Beer Brats.

Beer Brats w. Peppers and Onions and a side of steamed Green Beans

Another tester recipe from Joanna at Yellow Rose Recipes. This one actually has the recipe on her website for all to see. So if you like what you see here then go HERE for the recipe.

I've never made any of the steamed sausage style recipes that are floating around on the Internet. Now I wish I had made them sooner. It is super easy. Its quicker then my baking method that I love to death. My favorite part is that you don't need to re-wrap them after they are done because they are all ready wrapped in foil and can just be thrown into the fridge to use later.

I decided to use it as one would when making Sausage w. Peppers and Onions. Slowly cooked onions, yellow and red peppers caramelizing with some garlic and thyme in a healthy amount of extra virgin olive oil. Stuffed inside a whole wheat ciabbata and served with simply steamed string beans. It was perfect. The sweetness of the caramelized onions and peppers was driving me crazy. I could have just eating a whole bowl of that stuff. The brats were a perfect consistency and delicious. I will be making this again very very soon as well as all the other steamed seitan recipes floating around.


IMPORTANT NOTE!!!!! If you decide to make this recipe PLEASE allow your beer to become stale. You can't skip that part of the recipe or it will make for some weird brats or so I've heard from other testers.

Stale beer = perfect brats!

Dip Dip Dip Dip.....

Spinach Artichoke Dip

I am soooooooooooooooooo happy that Joanna is back and letting us test more recipe for her. I've been in a bit of a cooking rut lately and was just saying to Peter that I need new things to make. I knew Joanna was going to be posting new stuff soon and low and behold I checked the very next day and there were all the new recipes. Horray!

This one caught my eye IMMEDIATELY! I knew I had to make it right away. I've always loved Spinach and Artichoke dip but have never made it myself, vegan or non-vegan. It was always easier to just order it at a restaurant for an appetizer or maaaaaybe for my main meal.



I have nothing bad at all to say about this recipe. It took no time at all to make. Maybe 10 minutes to put together and then another 10 in the oven. It also took no time to eat. I ate a very unhealthy portion of it for my lunch with some homemade tortilla chips from Whole Foods that I'm obsessed with. This dip will definitely be making a few appearance at the holidays this year.

When Joanna's book comes out sometime next year make sure you make this recipe ASAP!

Food Fight!

A mess of goodies from Food Fight Grocery

It's about time I get back to blogging. Reno is finally all better from her ear infection one week and then a stomach virus this past week. I missed the end of VeganMoFo and I wasn't able to partake in this months Daring Bakers because of Reno's sickness. I can't wait to go food shopping and cook real meals again.

For now I will share with you my haul from Food Fight Grocery. I received a gift certificate from my Aunts, Constance and Anne, last christmas and had yet to use it. I finally got to business and ordered some items that I just haven't been able to locate locally yet here in NJ.

I got:

Soy Curls, I can't wait to try these
MimicCreme, It's soy free!
Soyatoo Soy Whip, Its in the fridge waiting for a pie or sundae or..
Primal Strips Mesquite Lime, these I can find locally but not all the time.
White Chocolate Chips, I was never a fan of white chocolate but I liked them in
Macadamia White Chocolate Chip cookies and I've been craving those.
Crispy Cat Chocolate
Boom Choco Boom Chocolate
Hemp Seeds, I love them in salads

As I try each of these products I'll let you all know my feelings on them...



Chocolates

So far I've only tried these two different chocolate bars.

Boom Choco Boom dairy free rice milk bar: meh. Peter seemed to like it a lot but I was just so so on it. I was never a milk choclate fan to begin with and though it would be fun to try a vegan milk chocolate. I would not order this again or buy it in a store if I saw it.

Crispy Cat Mint Coconut: Now this is a different story from the chocolate above. YUM YUM YUM!!!! I hated that I had to share with Peter the only bar I ordered. The chocolate was great as was the mint coconut flavor. I'm now interested in trying out the other flavors this company offers.

VeganMoFo: Tacos

Seitan Tacos w. Sweet Plantains and Seasoned Black Beans

Before Reno got an ear infection last week (and now a stomach virus this week!) I made us a taco dinner. My very first post ever on this blog was about tacos. These were different then those and equally as good and easy. As I get lazier and lazier with every passing week I used a packet of organic taco seasoning that I get at whole foods for the seitan. It's good so I see no reason to do something else otherwise. The seitan was the easy part. Dice and saute then follow the directions on the package. Top them off with some mesclun greens and a mashed up avocado and you've got yourselves a fine main entree.

For the sides I fried up 1 sweet plantain. I had purchased 2 but only 1 was ripe enough to be sweet. I'm actually still waiting for the other one to sweeten up. I also made seasoned black beans. It was nice having it alone as a side dish instead of a main meal with some rice. I'm going to try to do that more often because it made the meal extra satisfying and comforty.

I should be back to posting more regularly now that I'm back from my friends wedding in Ohio and even though Ms. Reno is still sick. They just might be short and make no sense at all but it's still a post. :)

VeganMoFo: a break.

Reno (almost 14 months!)


My sweet sweet Reno isn't feeling very sweet. She's feverish and has an ear infection and is on some sorta meds. This is her first real sickness and it's horrible. At least she wants to cuddle which she never wants to do.

I'll be back in a few days when she is feeling better.

VeganMoFo: Peters Dinner

Linguine w. Zucchini, Yellow Peppers, Red Onions, Cherry Tomatoes, Garlic, Pine Nuts

Sometimes Peter will think up a meal. This was one of them. He was bothering me for a few days about how he wanted pasta with zucchini and maybe yellow peppers in oil w. garlic. He kept asking and asking so I finally made it. I would have made it sooner but the specific ingredients that he wanted in this pasta dinner were not on hand.

My favorite thing about this dish is how the zucchini, peppers and onions are cut in long thin slivers which mimic the shape of the pasta. I also love the pop of flavor the cherry tomatoes give when they explode in your mouth!

The taste was pretty good too. After I took a bite Peter asked what I thought about it and the only word that came to mind was "Healthy". Which to me means that it is good but it also kinda lacks, just a bit, in the flavor and comfort department. Don't get me wrong. There was great flavor in it from the veggies but we have been eating so many richly spiced foods recently that this was kinda a shock to my taste buds. I hate to say it but some freshly shaved Parmesan would have been amazing on this.

I'm off to South Jersey for the weekend. We have a trip to Atlantic City planned, not to gamble, but to go to the clothing outlets to buy Reno the rest of her winter clothes. I'm hoping to get some for me as well.

See ya!

VeganMoFo: Favorite Dessert part 1

Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies



I like cookies.
I like em a lot.
I like to eat them for breakfast, lunch, brunch, dinner, afternoon snack, midnight snack and dessert.
I like them crispy.
I like to put ice cream in the middle of two cookies and eat them as a sandwich.
I like to eat raw cookie dough.
I like to eat raw frozen cookie dough.
I like to put raw frozen cookie dough into ice cream.
I like to hide a cookie in a cupcake.
I like taking pictures of cookies.
I like looking at other peoples pictures of cookies.
I like to share cookies with people that I like.
I like to bring cookies to parties, potlucks, or just to the park.

I do not like to eat cookies in bed.

VeganMoFo: Comfort

Leek and Bean Cassoulet

This is one of those recipes from V'con that I've been meaning to make ever since I got this book. Finally I had everything I needed to make it. Really all I needed was some leeks since most of the ingredients I have on hand all the time. This was super easy to make. It did use a lot of pots, pans, bowls and dishes but it was well worth it.

I followed the recipe to the "T" except for the frozen peas. As you may know I HATE PEAS! I'll eat them, sometimes, if they are hidden in foods that I have not cooked myself but if I am cooking, peas will never be added. I used frozen string beans instead. The cassoulet part of the dish was very tasty. The biscuits were so so. This dish reminded me a lot of a dish my grandfather would make which we all called "chicken pa pa". His biscuits were amazing. So all other biscuit recipes have a lot to live up to for me. I'll always remember hanging around his kitchen when he was making his "chicken pa pa". I always wanted to whisk whatever needed to be whisked. It was always the thrill of my day!

All 3 of us devoured this meal. Then we devoured the rest of it for lunch the next day.

VeganMoFo: Crispy

Beer Battered Seitan, Mixed Veg w. Garlic + Tots

This dinner has been approved by all 3 of us. When I ate chicken I loved Chili's Chicken Crispers. Oh how bad they are for you but how delicious they were. After you would eat them you'd declare to the entire table that you would never eat them again because of how horrible you felt afterwards. How quickly our stomach forgets..because you would be back a few months later ordering them again and again declaring that THIS was the last time. I'm glad to say that I obviously have had a "last time" with them even though my stomach says MORE, MORE, MORE!!!

When I'm getting those cravings I turn to this RECIPE from Jess of Get Sconed! Hers is a slightly adapted version of another recipe and mine is slightly adapted from her slightly adapted one. Mostly just extra amounts of some spices and such..it's nothing measured. Anyway..these are quick to whip together and are a cinch to fry. Served with a medley of mixed vegetables and some organic tater tots and you've got yorself a complete meal that won't kill you as quickly as those pesky chicken crispers would.

My one recommendation with the recipe is to 1/2 it. I used about 4 decent sized seitan cutlets cut into strips and I had a ton of batter left over. If I was making this for a party the full recipe would be perfect but for the 3 of us it's just too much.

Speaking of us..Reno ate the entire meal except for the carrots. She was shoving zucchini and string beans into her mouth like it was nothing along with the seitan and tots. The next day I chopped up the tots and leftover veg, again minus the carrots, for her lunch and heated them up. Gobble gobble gobble..she ate it all. My wonderful little eater!

Oh yeah..that's BBQ sauce from a jar that you see creeping under all the food.

VeganMoFo: Favorite Dinner part 2

Rice and Beans w. Zucchini and Tomatoes
V'Con Skillet Cornbread

Another favorite dinner so soon? You bet! I'm glad I did it so soon too because this was the best Rice and Beans dinner I've ever made and I've made many. I use to make kick ass Rice and Beans all the time. Then I noticed that they started lacking in flavor and I didn't know why. I though I was making them the same way I always make them but apparently I wasn't. Then one day not too long ago I taught my Mother-in-law how to make them and she now makes them all the time and they are good! Really good! I'm wondering how I can teach her to make them and she can make them better than mine have been even though we are making them the same way. So last week I decided to take my time making them. The flavor I was missing was all of a sudden back. I figured out my problem very easily. I was quick cooking them. I wasn't allowing for the flavors to develop enough. Understandably with a baby who is now 13 months, quick was what I was looking for but quick doesn't work for delicious Rice and Beans.

Now to last night. I made them again but even better with the addition of small diced zucchini and tomatoes. I cooked the onions and garlic in olive oil until soft and delicious then added a nice helping of cumin and let that cook as well. (It's very important to cook your dry spices. It helps get the rawness out of them and it also then flavors the oil you are cooking everything in then creating a flavored oil. Does that make sense? It does to me and that is what I was taught by some talented chefs that I've worked for.) Then goes in the cans of black beans, not drained, and some salt and is slowly simmered on medium-low heat. Towards the end I added small diced zucchini and tomatoes. I like my zucchini al dente that's why I add it to the end. Cook for a few more minutes, taste for salt and voila awesome Rice and Beans with yummy veggies that will trick any Rice and Bean loving 13 month old who is refusing to eat green veggies all of a sudden. I think you know who I'm talking about.

The beans were topped off with fresh sliced scallions and 1/2 and avocado for each of us on top. On the side was the Skillet Cornbread from V'con. Pretty good cornbread but I've had and made better.

So the moral of this story is to take your time cooking. Rushing things is not alway's good for you.

(That 13 months old was now eating unhidden sauteed zucchini tonight with her seitan! Such a good kid. Next Monday she will surely hate it again.)

VeganMoFo: Simple

PB&J


I just right now remembered that I got into a mini argument with a co-worker once about PB&J's. He said that calling them PB&J was incorrect since peanut butter was two words and shouldn't be combined as one when initialed as PB. I can't remember the outcome of that argument. I probably just started yelling cuz nobody talks bad about my beloved PB&J. Nobody!

My PB&J needs to be made with grape jelly, always. Always! Anything other is just plain wrong and I won't put up with it.

VeganMoFo: Favorite Dinner part 1

Vegetable and Cashew Stir Fry


This one was a no brainer when it came to choosing 1 of my 3 favorite dinners. I would make and could eat this at least 5 times a week. You got your fresh colorful veggies and your protein packed cashews all melded together with a thick tamari sauce. How can you go wrong? My sister thought it was wrong because I add garlic chili sauce to it but she's a nut when it comes to spicy foods.

Veggies involved in that fry...

asparagus
broccoli
red onions
garlic
ginger
string beans
red pepper
zucchini

Other ingredients..

cashews
garlic chili sauce
tamari
cornstarch
olive oil

There would have been carrots added to the mix but I forgot about them. I also forgot to slice up some scallions for the top.

The tamari glaze is a simple 1/3 cup of tamari with about 2 spoonfuls of cornstarch or arrowroot mixed in and added at the end. It makes for a nice and thick sauce that clings to all the veggies.

Tofu, seitan and tempeh would also lend itself well to this dish.

VeganMoFo: Produce

"Farmers Market Produce"



I haven't posted a food shopping trip in months and months. I find it fun to see what other people have purchased so I don't know why I stopped.

Today I went to the "farmers market" with my sister after lunch today. I put "quotes" around farmers market because it isn't really one. It calls itself one but the produce does not come from any proper farm that would sell at a real farmers market. It's basically a produce store with cheap fruits and veggies and a few canned sorta goods. Its great for when I need to bring down the amount of money I spend on food. I got the above haul for $50. If I went to my usual Whole Foods and bought all of that it would be close to $200.




What you see and can't see in the pics: lemons, garlic, peppers (red and jalapeno), plantains!!, broccoli, leeks, string beans, radishes, asparagus, brussels sprouts, parsley, onions, red onions, zucchini, cantaloupe, yukon gold potatoes, garlic chili sauce, walnuts, cashews, rigatoni. Possibly more. I just realized that I forgot to buy bananas for Reno. Oh well.



My bouquet of parsley. I actually find it very pretty and wouldn't mind displaying some parsley in my kitchen all the time. That lovely bunch will probably be made into a delicious pesto in a day or two.

I also plan to make the Bean and Leek Cassoulet (sp?) w. Biscuits from V'con. Maybe a pot pie. Pumpkin Baked Ziti for a pot luck, Rice and Beans w. Plaintain Chips and some kick ass stir fries among other things. It will be a delicious and fun comfort cooking week.

VeganMoFo: mustard curse.

Mustard Crusted BBQ Seitan w. Broccoli and Sweet Potato Fries


Seriously. I'm having major problems coming up with a mustard crusted seitan recipe. The first time I tried to make it I had the right idea but just totally went about it wrong just to make it quick. Last night I totally had the wrong idea about how it should be made and continued to go about it the wrong way even though I knew it was wrong. I've never had trouble creating a "crusted" item before. Why so many problems with mustard of all things. The first time I at least actually tasted mustard in the final dish. This time I didn't and I used way more mustard than the first time. I ended up blobbing some BBQ sauce on the seitan cutlets at the end just to give it more flavor. One thing that did work with the weird "crust" was the BBQ sauce. Something about the mustard, rosemary and sauce all worked together. It wasn't what I wanted but it turned out turned happy at the end.

Also what has been up with my pictures recently? First the ugly burrito now this busted pic of some weird seitan. I need to start taking my time with things again and not be in a hurry which is hard with a 13 month old.

VeganMoFO: Field Roast

Italian Field Roast w. Broccoli and a Multi Grain Roll

My parents have been around the last few days to visit and come to an environmental Octoberfest with us today. It was pretty cool. You can never be too sure what these things are going to be like. There were bird hikes, canoe rides, lots of information on wildlife, recycling and the like. Afterwards we stopped at Whole Foods to pick up stuff for dinner. While the others would be dining on some roasted herb chickens I picked up for myself some Field Roast Sausages. I absolutely love everything I've had from this company. It's sorta expensive so I don't buy them too often.

The Italian ones are great to add to pasta sauces or to join in on family dinners of sausage and peppers.

Mexican Chipotle are my favorite of all the products. I love making dirty rice with them or adding them to chili's.

And..who can forget the Celebration Loaves! I love bringing this loaf to my parents for the holidays. My mom is usually cooking away all day so I need something that I don't have to fuss with much at all and still have a special meal for myself without getting too much in the way.

VeganMoFo: Favorite Lunch part.1

Black Bean, Brown Rice and Avocado Burrito

For part 1 of my favorite lunches I bring you a bad photo of a delicious burrito which I couldn't fully wrap properly because I was hungry and over stuffed it. Just live with it. I love burritos. I like to have everything wrapped up in a tortilla that you can eat with your hands. It's better than a sandwich because you have a better chance of it not falling all over your hands while you eat, depending on the type of wraps that you use. Some are so cheap and brittle that no amount of warming will keep them from breaking which in turn makes hot beans fall and burn your delicate hands. Recently I've been liking the 365 brand of tortillas. Especially the whole wheat ones. They have been wrapping my burritos beautifully recently. Sadly they were sold out the last time I was there and had to get the white flour ones.

Now when I say this is one of my favorite lunches I don't necessarily mean that particular one above. I mean all. Whether it's Chipotle's vegetarian burrito minus the sour cream and cheese or one from the local taco place which has stopped warming up their tortillas for some reason. They are the perfect food especially for lunch.