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 (18)

By kilax, November 14, 2009 7:49 am

The Pharaoh

It’s too soon after posting these pictures, BUT I had been eying this Pharaoh hat at Target for two months. Imagine my delight when I saw it in the Halloween clearance section last week for 75%  off ($1.25 total – not sure if it’s even worth that!).

Doesn’t it look great on Data?! He didn’t like it so much. I had to bribe him with food to wear it so I could take a picture. (I think he deserves it after trying to wake me up for 3 hours this morning.)

Killer House Plants

We have a lot of house plants in our lower level – seven of them! Two of them, somehow from across the room, decided to band together and grow super stinky, killing flower pod things (not yet bloomed) this past week. I am convinced they are trying to take over the house.

The little flower pod.

Both plants are corn plants. We have had one for at least 8 years, and the other for maybe 3. It’s curious that they are blooming now, when they never had before! I’ll let you know what they look like when they open (I imagine there will be little daggers in there, which the plants will use to attach us in our sleep).

The whole corn plant.

Nutritional Yeast Fail

Why is my pasta naked, sad and lonely?

Because it is supposed to have this on it:

A Nutritional Yeast based pasta sauce.

But one bite of that made me want to throw up. Steven tried to fix it with spices and he couldn’t.

Most of the vegan websites I read talk about using nutritional yeast to make a pseudo mac n’cheese dish. I was intrigued so I bought some and was really excited to try it. I tried this recipe from vegweb.

I don’t know if nutritional yeast is a very acquired taste, or if my stomach was just too upset after my run, but this sauce made me feel nauseous, and I lost my appetite. I am hoping I just did something wrong, or it was the wrong recipe, because I have read SO MANY raves for this product!

I felt really bad for “ruining” dinner. I am pretty sensitive in the kitchen, since I am not a very good chef. I need lots of praise and good feedback to keep me going (ha ha). Luckily, Steven was not upset about it. But I think we will be making something “safer” for dinner tonight!

Comments (19)

By kilax, October 13, 2009 5:35 am

This cold weather has been making me hungry for something warm… like chili!

I found this vegan chili recipe the other day, so we* Steven made it on Monday night. We made the recipe as written, but added 1/2 teaspoon of dried jalapeños. Yum yum yum. It turned out SO GOOD**. I love chili with a lot of beans and this one did not disappoint!

Apparently, cornbread goes with chili? This was news to me, but when Steven asked me to find a recipe for vegan cornbread, I all of a sudden started craving it.

We used this recipe from vegweb, but used 2 tablespoons of milled flaxseed mixed with 3-4 tablespoons of warm water in place of the egg replacer. Oh gosh. Fresh, hot cornbread… drooool. It turned out really good. I am not sure how long the leftovers are going to last.

Do you have staple dishes that you make over and over? We often have soy burger sandwiches or salads for dinner, but once a week, we usually make one of “our dishes” – our “Pad Siew” or refried beans with rice. We end up making these dishes when our family comes to visit too. It would be nice to add chili to that list of “our dishes.”

*I was sent to pick up cornmeal and was in charge of opening the cans of beans when I got back.
**And it made the house smell SUPER GOOD!!!

Comments (15)

By kilax, September 7, 2009 7:54 am

Yesterday while I was cutting up our vegetables and fruit (and cleaning the fridge and running to the grocery store),

Veggies and some fruit for the week.

Steven made a vegan chocolate cake! The same one my grandma made me for my birthday in July.

Nom nom nom nom nom.

My mom got me a mixer for my birthday (can you believe I have been mixing everything by hand until now?!), so we’ve been using that for all of our baking lately.

The batter.

Does anyone else ALWAYS think of My Big Fat Greek Wedding whenever they see a bundt cake now?

I want to eat it now!

The frosting… we had a bit extra…

So we had to be creative on how to use it! (There are still two cups in the fridge!)

The finished product!

This cake is so decadent, dense, moist, rich and PERFECT. When my grandma made it for me for my birthday, I think I ate a fourth of it in one day. I couldn’t get enough. I have never had chocolate cake this good (I don’t even really LIKE chocolate cake that much!!!). Try it if you get the craving for something AWESOME and CHOCOLATE. You can find the recipe here.

Drooooooool…

Happy Labor Day Everyone! We stayed in town this weekend and have been taking it easy. It’s been nice!

(What would this post be without a pic of Data? He was very chill while we were working in the kitchen. He has been enjoying many long walks this weekend, followed by long naps.)