Comments (20)

By kilax, January 2, 2010 6:34 am

Many of you had “try one new recipe a week” listed as a New Year’s Resolution and I thought that was SO FUN! Although we don’t do it as frequently, Steven and I love trying new recipes. We both subscribe to food blogs and share recipes with each other via google reader. Our favorite website for finding recipes has been VegWeb.com. I bet most of the recipes we’ve tried have come from there!

Where do you look for new recipes? What makes you want to try a new recipe?

I usually want to try a new recipe if it lists some of my favorite ingredients, is accompanied by a beautiful photo, or if it is something I have been craving for awhile!

Our latest adventure, Vegan “Meatloaf,” did feature two of our favorite ingredients (when mixed together) – lentils and rice. Since we had most of the ingredients listed (we had to use soy sauce, red wine vinegar and onion powder in place of Worcestershire sauce and basil and thyme instead of Herbes de Provence) we decided to give it a go.

Hmm.

We both think it needs some work. It was definitely edible and filling. And it had interesting flavor and texture. It just wasn’t quite “there” yet.

Ugh. I guess “Meatloaf” (no matter how perfect the recipe) just isn’t worth two and a half hours of prep/cooking. We had to make our own breadcrumbs,

individually cook the lentils, rice and veggies,

mash them all up and form a “loaf,”

make a sauce for the top,

and bake the damn thing.

So, needless to say, the Vegan “Meatloaf” will probably not make it into our meal rotation, but it may be worked on some more.

It was fun to try something new, that’s for sure!

Comments (17)

By kilax, December 26, 2009 6:13 am

We LOVE making homemade pizza! It’s so fun to pick your own toppings, and it’s especially fun to make pizzas with a group of people and see what everyone puts on theirs!

But for the longest time, we were using store-bought crusts (we are still using store-bought sauce – that’s the next step!). They’re okay, but nothing special. When my coworker told me she had a great vegan pizza crust recipe, I made her send  it to me ASAP! We tried it, and oh boy, it does NOT disappoint!

The ingredients are:

• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 cup warm water (110F-115F)
• 1/4 oz (1 envelope) active dry yeast
• 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 c margarine or oil
  

Step 1: Dissolve the sugar in the warm water. Sprinkle the yeast on top and stir (if the mixture stays clear, and the yeast clumps together, the water is not warm enough – throw it out and start over). Let the mixture stand in a warm spot for 5 minutes until a thin layer of creamy foam covers the surface.

Step 2: Mix 3 cups for flour with the salt in a large bowl. Make a hole in the middle of the mixture and pour in the yeast mixture and the margarine or oil. Stir the flour into the well with a wooden spoon until it is mixed in and the dough holds together.

Step 3: Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead in the remaining flour. Continue to knead, adding more flour if necessary, until the dough is smooth and elastic (10-15 minutes). Form a ball with the dough and place it in an oiled bowl. Cover with a clean towel and place the bowl in a warm area to let the dough rise (45 minutes for quick yeast, 60-90 minutes for regular yeast).

Step 4: Pre-heat the oven to 500F and get your toppings ready (we use a pizza stone, so we preheat the stone with the oven because the actual bake time is so short). Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down. Roll the ball out to form a pizza crust.

Step 6: Load up that bad boy with your toppings and slide it onto the stone – make sure to put LOTS of flour underneath the crust so it will slide. Bake for 10-15 minutes (or until the cheese starts to brown on the top for non-vegan pizza – usually more like 20 minutes).

Step 7: NOM it up! (Note: the pizza in the photo below looks messed up because we did not follow our own advice about the flour and it stuck to the sheet when we tried to move it to the stone! Oops! Live and learn!)

What are your favorite toppings to put on pizza?

I like zucchini, tomato, green pepper, lots of onion, spinach, and Morningstar crumbles. Steven likes all of that, plus olives and cheese. (Hmm, how did that olive end up on my slice in the top picture, Steven?)

We like to put garlic powder (not fresh garlic), cumin (yes mother – it can be used on pizza, it’s not just for chili), crushed red pepper, oregano and salt and pepper on for spices.

What I love about this crust is that it tastes like a crust you would eat in a restaurant! And you can make a big chewy crust on the end. Yum oh yum.

The only problem? It’s really hard to only eat one piece!