Tag Archives: recipe round up

Blog Recipe Round Up: Slow Cooker

February 5, 2018

I asked for a slow cooker for Christmas, thinking mostly about making bulk staples- cooked beans from dried, vegetable stock, tomato sauce, etc. But I knew I would eventually try some other recipes, that would be served up as dinner. So here are my findings- with mostly good results.

Vegan Jambalaya

Sadly I think the point of a slow cooker is slightly missed here. The recipe calls for you to add more ingredients midway through the slow cooker. I get it. It tastes better and prevents overcooking this way. But realistically you can’t just come home from work and add more food. You could still make it if you plan on waiting even longer once you get home for the added ingredients (and if your slow cooker has a timer)

But aside from that, the flavors are all there. And since I am a stay at home mom, it all worked out. It does call for a specific flavored vegan sausage, but that is my only complaint. I am sure you could google a recipe on how to make one if you can’t find it near you.

Bottom Line: Good for stay at home days or timed cooker

Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup

So many mixed feelings about this soup. For starters- I love how cheap it is to make. Carrots, celery, onions, and split peas. I could crunch the numbers but I am fairly certain the whole soup costs less than $5. It is also REALLY easy to make. Chop- toss- and let it cook. I love how the texture is very smooth but not puree smooth.

The flavor was pretty good, but not mind blowing. I always bring this up since I feel like traditionally non-vegan foods that are close to being vegan need to be a solid 100. Otherwise people swear by that little “je ne sais quoi” that meat brings to the table, in this case a little bit of ham. So I wish she included a little bit of paprika or liquid smoke, etc. I can easily do that, but non-vegan readers might not think of that.

Bottom Line: Overall good, easy to enhance

Slow Cooker Root Vegetable Stew

This recipe, although it isn’t in the title is suppose to be inspired by a Moroccan tagine (or tajine). If you never had one before it is just a spiced stew cooked in a clay pot, commonly cooked in Northern Africa and the Middle East. I’ve made a few tagine recipes, but not in the traditional cookware.

The first thing I noticed was that there wasn’t that many spices. Seemed a little suspicious so I doubled the spices (for some.) Truthfully I wish they included a wider variety of spices becuase they didn’t jump out that much. I also skipped the raisins and the chickpeas. The chickpeas because of a weird scheduling issue, and the raisins because I thought it would be too sweet. I’m glad I did that because all the root veggies were super sweet!

This was a fast-yet-slow slow cooker recipe. So much time was spent peeling and chopping, but the slow cooker gets put on high so it only takes about 4 hours overall. Making it not so great if you want something to cook while you are at work (unless you work from home) Overall this isn’t a bad dish, though it felt like it was missing something. It does make a HUGE amount.

Bottom Line: Very sweet. Wolfie LOVED it.

Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Macaroni

I wanted to try and pick recipes that weren’t just soups and stews for this review. I’ve modified quite a few recipe to use a slow cooker to ensure that I don’t burn things on the stovetop or know that I can go for my “late” walks (you know… at 4-5pm) and still have a dinner on the table.

I’ve also made quite a few vegan mac and cheese recipes. So I have quite a few high standards. Let me state that vegan mac and cheese is sort of like a chili- you need a really good balance of flavors. So usually when I see a vegan mac and cheese with a short list of ingredients, I am skeptical. But I gave it a go.

What I got was a SMELLY house… or maybe not. I mean my house smelled terrible, but it could of been because of our trash, but likely a combination. Honestly- it smelled like vomit. I have no idea why. It crept up all morning, but all that was in the slow cooker was water, canned tomatoes (didn’t use fresh like the recipe), butternut squash, and herbs. WHAT?! I also found that the pasta was easy to over cook. If you are wondering how you make this recipe- you cook the squash for several hours, blend, add the rest for about 15-20 minutes for the pasta to cook. Also there just wasn’t enough bang in the sauce. I eventually add some miso to add a little kick.

But that all being said, the overall concept wasn’t bad. I think in the future I would tweak the recipe around, and pay more attention to the pasta while it cooks up. I probably would snag a mac and cheese recipe I like and modify it for the slow cooker to include all the flavors I like. And Wolfie LOVED the dish. So it wasn’t a total bust.

Bottom Line: Interesting concept, needs tweaking to the sauce, needs attention towards the end.

Slow Cooker Seitan Pot Roast

I remember awhile ago learning that you can make seitan in a slow cooker. One day I remembered that and searched for a recipe. This was the first one, and I think I should of looked harder. The name of the author sounded familiar so I figured, gotta be good right?

Overall the recipe worked. The veggies cooked up and were yummy. The seitan cooked and was tasty, buuuut wasn’t the best seitan I ever had. It was pretty plain and I could think of a million other recipes that were tastier. The seitan works perfectly fine for OTHER recipes, but not something that I would want as a Thanksgiving dinner.

Bottom Line: Method check out, flavors meh

Slow Cooker Coconut Curry Lentils

I love seeing price breakdowns of food. I hear things like “serves two people for $10!” and I THINK that’s a lot, but I really don’t know. I just know how much a spend each week for my husband and I (and now little munchkin.) But by having the prices next to the food I can think “am I over paying for lentils?” and “thank god for Trader Joe’s coconut milk!” So I think I overall spent LESS than her numbers, but I haven’t personally crunched the numbers for spices and veggies (how can I? they were from my CSA)

So let’s go with how the food turned out. Overall the recipe is pretty straight forward. Toss everything into a crockpot. Cook. Add coconut milk. Okay. Simple enough. The end result? Pretty tasty, though I am not 100% amazed. I would certainly recommend this recipe. Super easy, great for working families. TONS of food. It wasn’t mind blowing though. BUT I like how simple it was, and it is great way to introduce vegan food to newbies. Simple, cheap, nothing crazy, and full of flavor.

Bottom Line: Great for vegan newbies and busy families.

Posted by Jennifer in Food Review, Reviews Tags: budget bytes, chow hound, connoisseurus veg, Healthy Slow Cooking, recipe round up, recipe roundup, robin robertson, slow cooker, tabs and tidbits

8 comments

Blog Recipe Round Up: Sunday Brunch Edition

January 7, 2018

I am not a breakfast person. I don’t like sweet breakfast foods, and I have a smoothie every morning. If there isn’t a smoothie, usually breakfast gets skipped and I have an early lunch. But I am warming up to brunch, mostly because of booze. But this list is probably just breakfast foods. *shrugs* Oh well. They are brunch to me. Almost all are sweet things, so don’t get too mad is you are a savory fan.

One Bowl Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

These were super fast to put together, and the result is a super soft and yummy muffin. I subbed spelt flour for all purpose flour since I had it on hand. But as promised, you used only one bowl, making it a quick muffin to make. This is a great dish to make for a super sweet muffin on the weekends.

She suggests adding cream cheese to the middle, and I used whatever I had left for the centers. I wasn’t impressed with the centers as they were too tart in my opinion. She says the sugar is optional, but I think it is a must. I used Tofutti cream cheese, and it cooked up fairly stiff. If anyone else tries as different cream cheese with different results please share! Since I didn’t have enough cream cheese only some of the muffins got the center. I found that they baked up fine without the cream cheese center.

Bottom Line: Super yummy, mix sugar in the cream cheese!

Raw Buckwheat Breakfast Porridge

I’ve mostly been eating chia pudding for my pre-morning run. It is easy to make and pretty much something to make the night before. This buckwheat porridge ranks up there with easy accessibility. It is simple and easy, and very yummy. My only problem is that you need access to fresh fruit as a topping, which sometimes isn’t as readily available during the winter.

I also found that sometimes buckwheat can be pricey, depending on where you go. And this recipe will use to up a good amount of buckwheat groats fast. But you CAN find buckwheat for cheaper prices, you just need to keep your eyes peeled.

Bottom Line: Good for weekday OR weekend

Easy Vegan and Gluten-Free Pancakes

What a boring name for these? Banana Buckwheat Pancakes is more interesting. Gluten-free Banana-Strawberry Shortcake Pancakes is even better. But hey, whatever. Doesn’t matter what they are called because these are delicious! I was shocked at how well it all worked together.

Sure they aren’t 100% like normal pancakes, but they don’t really seem “gluten-free” either. They have an earthy-nutty flavor that is welcomed. The bananas add a nice sweetness to the pancakes without it being overwhelming. The only downside is that the batter is thick so I had a hard time getting “pretty” cakes.

I didn’t start with buckwheat groats, but instead had some leftover buckwheat flour from a local Asian food market. I can only imagine that this helped the texture in the end since the store bought flour would have a more consistent texture than home ground flour. I was lazy and didn’t make the homemade whip cream, but these pancakes tasted great with some blueberry syrup.

Bottom Line: Yummy but not too heavy like more “gluten-free” pancakes

Norwegian Cinnamon Buns (Norske Kanelsnurrer)

I am so excited to finally try a recipe from Seitan is my Motor. I love how much thought and planning goes into Constanze’s recipes. I’ve learned quite a lot of European baked goods, and given me a much needed window outside of American sweets. This was the first year having my In Laws over for Christmas morning, so I wanted to include them on our growing tradition of brunch on Christmas.

My overall biggest complaint is that the recipe uses rapid action yeast. So you can’t make it as quickly as regular cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. I tried my best to wake up and start the dough right away, but I don’t think they were fully finished until 12:30-ish. You need to proof the dough twice, once for 90 minutes and another for 60 minutes.

Aside from that, the recipe worked wonderfully. I liked how the rolls weren’t too sweet and used healthier flour than just all purpose. Having the spelt and whole wheat makes them more filling, though I am sure a little more tough compared to if I made them with just all purpose flour. I may have also overbaked them slightly working against a fluffy texture.

Bottom Line: Yummy, but wished there was an overnight option

Scramble Tofu Breakfast Bahn Mi

I feel like the dish is the definition of brunch- breakfast and lunch combined into one. Taking a lunch sandwich (Bahn Mi) and mixing it with the classic scrambled tofu for breakfast. This is something I love since I am more of a lunch person than and breakfast person.

I have a confession. I’ve never actually ate Bahn Mi before. I’ve heard about it, but never took the dive before giving up meat. Steak was never my favorite. So I can’t judge it on how authentic it is. I can judge on how tasty it was. The tofu is wonderfully spiced, and does look a lot like eggs. The Star Anise Daikon Pickles were a great add on. They were crisp and probably gave it that Bahn Mi feel. The downside? There was a little bit of leftovers. No big deal. It will just make a Bahn Mi wrap for lunch. This is definitely a something that will grace our table over and over again.

Bottom Line: Great for people who prefer more of the Lunch of Brunch

Almond Butter Banana Breakfast Bars

I always hate when I find vegan recipes that use lots of expensive ingredients. One cookie recipe used teff flour, maple syrup, and almond butter in huge quantities. It made me wonder how much each cookie cost? I was too afraid to find out. This recipe does use some expensive items like maple syrup and almond butter, but uses them in small reasonable amounts. I like that. All the other ingredients are cheap and commonly found in a vegan pantry.

The recipe is easy and fast to make. I made a change with the maple syrup since I ran out of it. I used a little blackstrap molasses and agave to fill in the rest of the syrup needed. I think blackstrap molasses was too strong, and I wish I used the maple syrup since the flavors would of worked really well. I also swapped spelt flour for whole wheat since i had it on hand. The dough was thick, but the end result is very soft and fluffy.

I divided the bars up into 8 pieces not 10 or 12 as suggested to give a hearty breakfast, but dividing them up smaller makes a great side for breakfast. Maybe a tofu scramble? Or sauted veggies? These are drool inducing bars, but they are tasty and not too desserty like some baked breakfast foods.

Bottom Line: Really tasty!

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Posted by Jennifer in Food Review, Reviews Tags: bahn mi, banana, brunch, buckwheat, Fannetastic Food, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, norwegian, oh she glows, pancakes, pastry, recipe round up, recipe roundup, recipe roundups, seitan is my motor, Terry Hope Romero, the post punk kitchen, tofu, vegan eats world, vegan richa, Vietnamese