Tag Archives: recipe roundup

Blog Recipe Round Up: Curries

May 15, 2018

This curry round up has taught me one vital lesson. I am spoiled. Yes my idea of what a curry is, is slowly becoming quite narrow. After cooking so many dhal recipes and such from Vegan Richa’s cookbook I have learned how to create so much depth and flavor to a curry dish. Now, when I stumble upon a recipe that uses plain curry powder, it makes me a little sad.

Yes, there are some curry recipes on here that just uses the yellow spice mix, and some don’t. Some are called a curry and a yummy, but deep in my heart I know it is just a stew. So read and enjoy my most recent round up!

Kohlrabi Curry

This is a very odd recipe, I’ve never seen a curry made this way. First you roast the kohlrabi then you cook the rice, then saute the aromatics, then add the kohlrabi to the aromatics. Very weird, but it works. She also uses chili powder which works surprisingly well with everything.

The recipe says it only take 30 minutes to make, which isn’t fully true, it can be more if your oven is really old and takes 20 minutes to preheat. My second complaint is that the recipe really only makes enough for two very hungry people. I might be interested next time doubling the recipe. And I was using a pretty HUGE kohlrabi too!

My word of caution is to peel the kohlrabi well. I didn’t and it was very tough in some parts. My husband described it as being stabbed by the curry. This is an easy fix.

Bottom Line: Yummy, easy

Chana Masala

This is one of my summer favorites. When my CSA is producing tons of tomatoes, it isn’t a big deal to use up three pounds of tomatoes in one dish. In my area, that many tomatoes can cost $9 overall or $12 organic. It isn’t the worst amount of money when you consider that it makes 4 servings, etc, etc. But when your cheap like me, it is a big deal.

What I find interesting about using fresh tomatoes instead of tinned is that you get two very different Chana Masalas. Canned results in a sweet dish, and that is how most Westerners learn how to make Chana Masala. That is all fine and dandy, but I like how this dish is practically all the same ingredients but show how you can get something totally different with a few tweaks. The end results is a tangier curry that was awesome. I love any chickpea based curry, and if you like Chana Masala you might to give this a try.

Bottom Line: Pricey with tomatoes, super yummy

Roasted Red Pepper, Chickpea and Spinach Curry

I pretty much picked up on this recipe since it looked simple and used cocktail or cherry tomatoes. I do have to say it is insanely easy. Roast some bell peppers, saute onion and garlic, then blend with a bunch of stuff. Then mix with spinach, chickpeas, and tomatoes, and bake. It might take over an hour to make, but the active and clean up time is pretty minimal. I also had the brilliant idea of using pasta instead of rice. I think both would of worked well, but I am slightly more partial to the pasta. The rice would of been good at grabbing onto the thin sauce.

I think the only downside to this curry is that it probably needs more salt… or rather more defined amounts of salt. I think the author sprinkled more salt onto the bell pepper than I did. So in the end the sauce was a little bland and I sprinkled a lot of coconut aminos on it. Which is fine and still tasted amazing. I will definitely make this dish again in the future. You could speed up the cooking process by using jarred red bell peppers.

Bottom Line: Super easy, lots of down time

Tofu Tikka Masala

Here is the biggest flaw in the recipe, you slow cook for a total of only 4-6 hours. Sucks. Most people use their slow cookers before they go to work, making most people out for 8+ hours. I know that isn’t how everyone has it, but most. So that is my number one complaint. It isn’t a big deal if, say, you want to make this on the weekend, or perhaps if you are a stay at home mom. Maybe you can come home during your lunch break? There are many situations where you can make this.

Oddly this is the second curry on here that uses cherry tomatoes. Odd, but I am loving this idea. I get so many cherry tomatoes from my CSA, and sometimes, I can’t just eat them raw in salads and wraps. I liked how they created sweet little bursts of flavor in the sauce. Slow cooking REALLY makes the flavors come out in the sauce, and I will be making this again for sure. I think in the future, I may want to bump the tofu from 1lb to 1 1/2lb. I was able to cut cubes for Wolfie and cover it in extra sauce. Baby approved.

Bottom Line: Great for stay at home moms or people who can come home for lunch to prep

Tandoori Cauliflower Chickpea Bowls with Creamy Cashew Raita

This dish I am on the border of printing out and making more often. It was pretty minimal work. Blend the raita up, chop and toss the cauliflower in a quick sauce, bake, and assemble. Pretty simple. It is also pretty darn healthy. I served it with a little bit of leftover brown rice instead of greens, though just the greens would of been tasty as well.

I have two complaints. One, which isn’t as big of a deal, is that there was SOO much leftover raita. I am not 100% sure what to use it for, but I will have to think of ways to use it up. The second complaint is that I wish there was a LIITTLE more flavor to the cauliflower. I didn’t use a whole head of cauliflower because it looked like there was too much for sauce. So I think if I made this again, I would double the sauce coating. Maybe even toss the chickpeas in it?

Bottom Line: Lots of extra raita, wish for more sauce, OVERALL YUMMY!

One Pot Curried Lentils and Enlgish Peas

I like how easy this recipe is. Very simple, but surprisingly large amount of flavor. It calls for green lentils, but I went for brown since they were the only ones available. I am sure green lentils would of tasted better, because I don’t know many people who prefer brown. Oh well.

This dish is as simple as saute the onion and garlic, add water, coconut milk, and lentils and simmer. Then toss in the peas and broccoli, cook JUUUUST a little longer, and that’s it. This involves very little chopping and prepping. This is something I would feel very comfortable leaving for my husband to make. This will get printed and filed away for him to make one day when he needs to make dinner on his own.

Bottom Line: Yummy, easy

Posted by Jennifer in Food Review, Reviews Tags: isa does it, recipe roundup, tartes and recreation, tasty kitchen, the full helping, the post punk kitchen, The PPK, Veggie Chick, yup it's vegan

4 comments

Blog Recipe Round Up: Savory Balls

March 26, 2018

I might be a little immature, as I find anything with the word “balls” a little funny. But they are all over the world, everyone in different countries take food and roll them into round shapes. Here are just a few vegan recipes I get a go. These are purely ones that are savory, not sweet. Those will be saved for another recipe round up.

Turnip Chickpea Meatballs

I saw this recipe and thought- I have a lot of turnip in my fridge- this recipe will be great! Sort-of. Lets talk about prep before the taste. The recipe calls for 4 cups grated turnip, claiming one smallish-medium turnip would yield that much… WHAT?! I grated probably 8-9 turnips (mind you I made a double batch) and tried to lightly fill the measuring cup, and ended up taking away a whole cup of turnip from the recipe (half a cup for the a non-double batch) This drives me nuts! Please include weights! So people can have a better idea if they are using about the right amount.

Then the recipe has a lot of steps. Cook some buckwheat, cook onion, then turnips, then mix, roll, and bake. I spent probably an hour in the afternoon getting the mix all ready. I feel like you probably could of used buckwheat flour and saved lots of time.

So what about the taste? Well, if these were the most amazing veggie balls, I might be okay with all this work. They weren’t. They were just okay. Not bad, not great, but still tasty. Yeah I used up so much turnip, and freed up a lot of space in my fridge (thank goodness) but I wouldn’t make these again because of time.

Bottom Line: Not bad, but a lot of work

Cauliflower Kofta Curry

File this under “WHY DIDN’T THIS WORK?!” Flavors were perfect. The sauce was amazing, and there was some leftovers that I used for leftover naan pizzas. But the kofta balls just were not staying together. The cabbage fell apart in the sauce, and I think they just needed something more to bind them together. Maybe even deep frying them? I would gladly make the creamy tomato sauce again for curry styled pizzas though.

Bottom Line: Big Thumbs Down

Savory Miso Tahini Oat Balls

What I love about these Miso Tahini Oat Balls is that they aren’t a “dinner” sort of ball like a meatball, or protein replacement. These are made for mid-day snacking, which is great since most mid-day snacks revolve around sugar. It gets very annoying after awhile, and the savory snacks are usually heavy on salt and fat (hello potato chips!)

Hands down Lacy NAILED these! Everything is well portioned and doesn’t use too much of any specific ingredient, which is nice since most are kind-of pricey. The time it took to make them is low, like maybe 10 minutes of mixing, grinding, and rolling, and bake time takes as long as it would for cupcakes.

The downfall is that the balls are a little crumbly, which isn’t the end of the world. Next time I might try making these in a large brownie pan and cutting them into a bars. This might make a little bit less of a mess and make it easy to pack for on the go. I wouldn’t change a thing.

Bottom Line: These are a great snack food

Lentil Mushroom Walnut Balls

These lentil mushroom balls were a recommendation from the Oh She Glows website as a good Thanksgiving dish. I figured that these would be a good protein for my dinner. The balls weren’t particularly hard to make, but took a good bit of time to finely chop the mushrooms, greens, and pre-cook some of the food.

The end result is delicious, but didn’t travel well to a dinner. To reheat the balls became dried out. Looking back, I probably would of made these balls far in advance and freeze them. Somehow I think the freezing process would keep the moisture in the balls.

Bottom Line: Eat right away, time consuming

Beet Ball ‘N’ Fries Salad

This was a yummy flavor combo but I had a little trouble with the beet balls. They were very delicate, but that might of been because my lentils didn’t cook all the way with the instructions provided. I am wondering if a soften lentil would of resulted in a better ball?

I think my husband just wanted to have beet burgers and fries, but I kind-of liked the salad combo. Maybe because it means more dressing? Maybe because I just want more lettuce? Who knows. It is a great way to satisfy a burger craving when you know you need to cram in a few more veggies in your meal.

Bottom Line: Delicate balls, yummy combo

Kidney Bean Koftas

I saw these kidney bean koftas on Vegan MOFO, and it is worth starting out that the theme was “zombie apocalypse” aka cook with what you have at home. So this recipe first got me thinking “she should of had this sauce” or “it would taste great with this.” But that isn’t the point of the recipe. The point is give a base to your meal to work around.

These came together really easily. I technically used dried beans that I cooked up, so not in the last minute put it together spirit. But whatever. It was a long day, I didn’t even think I would make dinner, but I figured I would see how much I could get done before Wolfie freaked out. I GOT IT ALL DONE!

I made half a batch with half the curry powder and no salt for Wolfie. The other half I adding the salt and the rest of the curry. We ended up halving the size of the balls, and making sandwiches with leftover fennel slaw and chutney. It was AWESOME! I strongly suggest pairing these balls with a “wet” ingredient. A sauce, chutney, slaw, etc. Wolfie had the same idea dipping his in his yogurt and pear.

Bottom Line: Quick, yummy, baby approved. Continue reading →

Posted by Jennifer in Food Review, Reviews Tags: balls, lentils, miso, mushrooms, oats, oh she glows, recipe roundup, Rise Shine Cook, salad samuari, super strength health, tahini, Taste Space, Terry Hope Romero, vegan richa, Walks talks and eats, walnuts

6 comments

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!

Continue reading →

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

8 comments

Blog Recipe Round Up: Tacos

December 6, 2017

Oh boy are there a million tacos out there! We are just barely scratching the surface with what’s out there. And even though they are all over pinterest, I think this was one of the hardest compilations to get together. Why? I think tacos are just way too easy to stray away from the original recipe. But I did it! So check out the recipes below!

Falafel Tacos with Sriracha-Tahini Sauce

This recipe is actually an amazing weeknight meal. Aside from my kitchen being so small that taking out the food processor is a pain, it is a super meal. All you need to dirty up is really the food processor, a baking tray, and cutting board. And while the falafels bake, you can clean up most of the dishes. Brilliant! The dinner made pretty much spot on what it would make- granted if you eat only two tacos. That can be hard since they are so tasty, but two tacos has 16 grams of protein. Not too bad considering my husband at three- which would be 24 grams of protein. Downside, I think the sriracha-tahini sauce was a little too thick, but then again I was getting to the bottom of tahini where they was very little oil.

Bottom Line: Quick and easy weeknight dinner

Beer and Lime Cauliflower Tacos

There’s been a lot of hub-bub with Thug Kitchen and if their writing is mocking African Americans. Although I find the juxtaposition of harsh language in a medium that uses flower language funny, I do think they could of done it without singling out a certain culture. I never really intended to check out Thug Kitchen, but I found this really yummy recipe that I just wanted to try badly.

Did the recipe hold up? Umm…no. The salsa was pretty darn spicy. Which to me isn’t too big of a deal except there was a lot of hot sauce in the cauliflower portion. I like it when you divide the heat up within certain ingredients, not piling on everything hot. The cauliflower was very watery from the beer, which makes me wondering if it would of worked better as sort of a “refried” cauliflower filling? And overall there were WAY too much onion flavor. I didn’t even use as much as they recommend since I didn’t have them, like adding more green onions!

There were some great flavor combos, but there should of been more finessing with the cooking process. Maybe saute the onions in the cauliflowers, only spice in the salsa, etc. Overall it isn’t bad though.

Bottom Line: Alright recipe, needs more streamlining.

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Sweet Potato Pecan Tacos

There is so much flavor going on with these tacos. They are easy to make and great for a more fall based taco when sweet potatoes are in season and when the temperature is going down (to turn the oven on). The great thing about the recipe is that the author is very open to variations so I did and found ways to improve the taco.

One thing I found needed improvement in the recipe is the texture. She has a smooth bean spread and soft sweet potatoes that probably have a nice outside texture from roasting. BUT I felt like it needed a little extra tooth, and adding quick pickled shredded cabbage I think did the trick. Avocados are also a major must as well, if it is in your price range.

I loved the flavor from the coconut cream, but it seemed more like something that would be great as a dressing. The blog post does suggest that this dish makes a great salad, so maybe I missed the memo that the cream was just suppose to be a dressing? Maybe, maybe not. But I wouldn’t bother with it unless you want to make a salad over a taco.

Bottom Line: Super yummy, but needs a lettuce or cabbage paired with it.

Black Bean + Tempeh Tacos with Cashew Cheese Sauce

This recipe is pretty easy and fast to make. What is both nice and disappointing about this recipe is how flexible it is. There aren’t any specifically highlighted flavors, which I tend to like from a taco recipe. But it does give a recipe for a very flexible taco filling that you can pretty much do any day of the week. Don’t have avocado? You’ll be fine. Don’t have cabbage? Just use lettuce. So I could imagine using this recipe as a basic structure to make on a busy weeknight.

I did NOT make the cashew cheese sauce mostly because I had some homemade vegan sour cream that needed to get used up. But the recipe for the cashew cheese sauce looks pretty good, and would of made a great addition to the tacos. Overall I think this is a recipe I might use again, it only took about 15 minutes to make. And as mentioned it is pretty flexible for interpretation, and she makes sure you still get your greens.

Bottom Line: Great recipe for starter vegans.

Tequila Lime Baked Tofu Tacos with Chipotle Crema

This recipe involves a lot of planning, but overall pretty easy. What takes the most amount of time is freezing the tofu, thawing it, pressing, then marinating. None of those steps take particularly long, but you need to think ahead. I think most vegans don’t know how to plan these steps since these are mostly common for meats. But I found that I froze the tofu one day, the next day remove and let thaw in the fridge. Then the day of making I pressed for an hour (it wasn’t fully thawed at the time), and marinated it before heading into work. That way it took a 30 minutes to bake giving lots of prep and clean up time.

BUT I do have a problem with the recipe. Although it was easy to make, there wasn’t nearly enough fat. The overall result was super acidic, but I wish she put a little oil in the marinade, or used cashews for the crema. Aside from that, I was totally happy with the results. There was a little extra of tofu for leftovers (hubs and I had three tacos each) so if you have a big family, you might want to double the tofu.

Bottom Line: Needs a little more fat, but tasty overall

BBQ Eggplant Tacos

Hmm… how do I feel about these tacos. So many emotions. First let me talk about prep work. It is pretty easy. I spent most of the time working on the peach-lime chutney. It wasn’t too hard, but it does involve a lot of fine chopping, so it was probably a total of 30-40 minutes, but worth noting there was lots of time to do other things. In fact I made the fennel slaw while the chutney cooked up. So all I had to do was roast the eggplant and put together the tacos when it came to dinner time. Dividing up the work makes the clean up more manageable.

Flavors have been interesting. I can’t say I hate and I can’t say I love it. My husband summed it up as minty and fruity. I think we both weren’t huge fans of the mix of fennel and peach. I think I might want to “dilute” the fennel by adding a little cabbage next time. Also I didn’t like how the eggplant “shredded.” I mean it kind-of did, but it was mostly just mushy shreds. I would probably just use beans or jackfruit in the future.

And it is worth noting that I had uneven amounts of food. I get it- when your recipe calls for one fennel bulb and mostly nothing else, you are going to have varied amounts. I ended up with a full little jam jar of the chutney. We had NO eggplant leftover, and there was enough slaw for maybe one two extra tacos. Not the worst, but something to keep in mind if you hate leftovers.

Bottom Line: Lots of prep, mixed emotions

What are your favorite taco recipes?

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Posted by Jennifer in Food Review, Reviews Tags: epicurious, Keepin It Kind, nutrition stripped, oh ladycakes, recipe roundup, tacos, thug kitchen, veggie with a cause, yup it's vegan

5 comments

Blog Recipe Round Up: Tomatillos

November 2, 2017

My goodness it has been a really long time since I’ve done one of these! I always try and write a review with any recipe I try online, make a category and hope they build up enough to be it’s own post. But that doesn’t always happen. Luckily my CSA forces me to try and figure out what to do with all these tomatillos so this post has been in the works for TWO YEARS!

Why did this take so long? Well I wanted to feature recipes that weren’t just salsa verde. I mean I made my own salsa morado, but I mean- it is just a salsa verde XD So I give you quite a round up! I hope you enjoy it, and there is even a sweet treat as well!

Roasted Tomatillo Hummus

I am frequent reader of Fragrant Vanilla Cake and saw this recipe using tomatillos in hummus. I knew I had to give it a try since it is an interesting way to eat the fruit. The recipe is pretty easy, roast tomatillos, blend with the hummus ingredients, serve. I have to admit this is a delicious and tangy hummus. Very different than what most people are use to for their hummus. I could picture myself just eating it as a dip with chips.

But I used it mostly in wraps with breaded green tomatoes, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and avocados. But I could use it in sandwiches, and a bunch of other ways. What makes this hummus so nice is that it is sweet and tangy but has lots of protein, so you get food that is nutritionally sustainable and filling.

Bottom Line: Quick and Easy, great for lunches.

Black Bean, Tomatillo, and Corn Soup

This is pushing the definition soup. It is more like a stew since it is so thick. It is indeed tasty, but I think there should be a little more broth to make it by definition a soup. Overall the dish is super healthy and full of vegetables and fiber. I think the longest part is getting all the vegetables prepared, especially since it calls for fresh corn. Because of this I think I would double the recipe next time so I could have leftovers to eat.

I also would add more tomatillos. Yes, you can taste them in the dish, but I wish there would of been more. I mean if you have tomatillos in the title, I better be tasting them. I think I ended up using more tomatoes in the soup than tomatillos! Aside from that gripe- I would give the dish a thumbs up on making it again.

Bottom Line: Easy and healthy soup. Recommend doubling the recipe for leftovers and adding more tomatillos.

Vegan Enchilada Suizas

I think what I’ve learned about these recipes is that maybe my tomatillos from my CSA are smaller than fresh tomatillos from the supermarket. So I doubled the amount of tomatillos in the sauce.

Looking at the recipe I felt like I probably should have a little more veggies in there, so I took away some of the beans, and added some sauteed sweet peppers. Also I didn’t use the suggested hot peppers in the sauce or any added salt since I was going to feed it to a 10 month old. Even without the salt, the dish carried itself quite well, but something to keep in mind with the spice levels.

Overall I loved the dish. I will make it again since it is easy to make and easy to prep ahead of time. I blended the sauce in the morning while my blender was dirty from smoothies. I set aside the sauce, so when it came to dinner time I just cooked the sauce, and put together the enchiladas.

My biggest complaint is that she doesn’t specify which sized tortilla wraps. I have “taco” and “burrito” sizes wraps, and I didn’t know which size, so I just made four big enchiladas as appose to six. Not the end of the world, but I can’t be the only one out there that didn’t grow up on enchiladas.

Bottom Line: Baby Approved, Just would make more sauce

White Bean Tomatillo Soup

This soup is much more “tomatillo-y” compared to the black bean recipe. This one uses a lot of beans and a lot of tomatillos. This is a simple soup that lets you enjoy the taste of tomatillos. Aside from cooking dried beans, the recipe doesn’t take long to make. All I did was soak the beans overnight, cooked them in the morning, then made the short 30 minute recipe. Though you could soak the beans in the morning and cook the soup for longer if you have the time to wait.

My only complaint is that she calls for 4 cups broth, 2 cups water. I feel like just sticking with 6 cups broth/stock would give a fuller flavored soup. Maybe it is to save people money? Most stocks are sold in 4 cup containers. Who knows. I didn’t read the 2 cups water so at first I had a very thick soup. Oops. But I really liked the recipe. Full of flavor, simple, and easy peasy.

Bottom Line: Super healthy and yummy soup. Would use all 6 cups of stock instead of part water.

Tomatillo Green Apple Sorbet

Sometimes recipes are so simple I find a hard time with them! Enter this recipe for a Green Apple and Tomatillo Sorbet. First what I ended up with was delicious, but there was a lot of last minute changes that I had to make.

The first change I had to make was that the portions on the site didn’t add up for me. It should I should of had about 2 1/2 cups by the end of the cooking process, but I had more like 1 3/4 of a cup. Eek! I quickly doubled the apple and tomatillo, started to cook them again, and got about the right amount. Blended it up and popped it in the fridge. Then when I put the sorbet in the ice cream maker, there didn’t seem to be much. This is something that annoys me with ice cream recipes. It takes a lot of work to make ice cream, and making just enough for two servings is a pain. So I quickly dumped some extra coconut milk into the ice cream maker.

The end result? A SUPER delicious recipe. Since I probably cooked the apples too much, I got a tart but semi caramel-like sorbet. The best part is that the ice cream kept really soft in the freezer, one of my first times doing so! I think adding the coconut milk in the end helped with the tartness. If I make this again, I will totally make some changes to the recipe, and you might find a similar recipe on the blog next year.

Bottom Line: Great inspiration. Overall great results, not sure if I will make this recipe 100% exactly the same

Chunky Tomatillo Tostadas

I took some liberties to switch this recipe up a little. Yeah, I got a little lazy in the tostadas part and was starving. So these got transformed into tacos. Oh well. I tried to keep the toppings in the spirit of the original post and let’s face it, a corn shelled taco isn’t too different from a tostadas. Personally the dish probably would of worked best in tostadas form, so keep that in mind.

Naturally my main complaint is that recipe calls for x amount of tomatillos, not going by poundage. I added more to the recipe since the tomatillos picked from my CSA were a little smaller than most commercial grocery stores. Aside from the resulting faster cooking time, everything worked out great! The whole recipe will probably take an hour from beginning to end but is very easy to get the prep work done, and has a lot of hands off time.

I really love how there were bursts of tomatillo flavors hidden in the pinto beans. I think there should be a little bit more tomatillo to bean ratio, but aside from that it is a great mix. As mentioned I made tacos instead and paired them with lettuce, avocado and tomato (no sour cream mix.) I will be adding this to my rotation during the next tomatillo season at my CSA

Bottom Line: Takes some time, but overall very easy and hands off.

Posted by Jennifer in Food Review, Reviews Tags: Fragrant Vanilla Cake, Macheesmo, rabbit and wolves, recipe roundup, The Simple Veganista, the wimpy vegetarian, tomatillo, tomatillos, wives with knives

3 comments

Vegan Mofo 2016 Day 6: Blog Recipe Round Up: Non-caffeinated lattes

November 6, 2016

Let’s be real here- there is something comforting about a warm milky drink. I am a little hesitant to say that this is a list of lattes since these are all missing the main ingredient in a latte: espresso. I have a small espresso machine at my house, but let’s face it, most people don’t. And truthfully I don’t have the cash to go to a coffee shop everyday. Not to mention that kills a lot of time. So I’ve become a big fan of making alternative hot milk drinks. I’ve even done a recipe roundup in the past of various hot chocolates, which I recommend. I tried to feature recipes that were pretty unique.

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First can I point out these coffee free lattes are so comforting that I’ve already posted quite a few recipes already on the blog. I totally recommend checking them out. Many are focused on traditional Asian lattes that are popular such as a sesame latte.

lattes

So let’s talk about this recipe roundup. If I am feeling a little down, or things are moving slowly in the morning, I love to have a nice warm cup in my hands. Hell, sometimes I don’t even drink the cup I have. I am sure I could pour myself a cup of hot water and hold it to boost my mood. But if it is filled with a warm milky drink? Well that makes everything even MORE amazing.

So what are the requirements? Well, the drink needs to have a milk or creamy consistency. All need to be targetted for vegans, or dairy free lifestyles. There is a drink or two that says to use honey, but will most likely suggest a substitute that is vegan. And finally there is no espresso in these drinks. I am not against it, but most folks don’t have an espresso machine at home. So let’s get to the reviews!

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Raw Cacao + Goji Berry Latte

Can I first point out that The First Mess website is HORRIBLE for a mobile phone? The ads make it impossible to get to and stay on the recipe in order to make it. I had to copy and paste the text into something else to read it on my phone. Which I don’t think is too much to ask for such a simple and small recipe.

But that technically has nothing to do with how the latte tastes. And let me say- it tastes amazing. This recipe was a little frustrating at first since it makes so little and therefore I had a hard time not boiling the soy milk too much (she recommends almond and coconut milk, which I don’t think would film up.) But it is worth the wait and effort. The date and goji berries blended up nicely, which can be hard. It also then frothed up, and filled up my mug perfectly.

The taste is the perfect amount of sweet. Sweet enough to be paired with unsweetened milk and cacao, but not too sweet that your mouth feels like it needs a brushing. I can see many people wanting to add another date to the mix though. The goji berries added just enough taste, complexity, and body to the drink. I will most likely make this again.

Bottom Line: Love, love, love it.

Warming Gingerbread Latte

This was a pretty straight forward latte- toss everything into a blender, blend, then heat. So it didn’t take too long to do. But as I tossed all the ingredients into the blender I had this nagging feeling “man, this is a LOT of fats in here.” I am not a huge fat phobic person, and hey this is just a treat right? Well, I think my hunch was right- this latte was thick. I think it would be easy to fix- just get rid of the cashews. I ended up using a hazelnut milk, and there is coconut milk (she doesn’t specify the low-cal fridge versions) so I think there is plenty of fat to keep that body.

As for flavor? I think I would add a dash of molasses, but otherwise it is pretty tasty. I really like the idea of a homemade espresso free gingerbread latte. Actually you could easily make this drink and toss in a shot of espresso and get great tasting drink. You know what might taste even better? Some blackstrap molasses rum or snap liquor (a speculoos cookie inspired liquor). I mean this is more of a dessert latte, right?

Bottom Line: Maybe skip the cashews? So thick. A little booze would help

Pumpkin Spice Turmeric Latte

Vegan Richa and Food by Mars both posted a Pumpkin Spice Turmeric Lattte really close to each other. So I had to try both out. Just putting out there- I like Richa’s better! I like her technique of boiling the spices in hot water first, it made everything less gritty. I played around with her steps just a little. I frothed the milk by blending it up in a blender, but I poured the hot water in the blender, to help everything get mixed together.

Overall, I loved the results, but I would make these changes. There is no pumpkin in her recipe, and I would like to add it in. Blend it up with the milk, it adds flavors and body to the drink. Just 3-4 tablespoons worth. Not that much. I also only added a tablespoon of sweetener, and I probably would use none if I had used regular milk. Otherwise, this is a great latte drink.

Bottom Line: Add a smidgen pumpkin puree, and it is perfect!

Spirulina Latte

So I have been into spirulina for awhile. It gives a bunch of iron to a vegan, and as a pregnant lady, I need iron. So I thought I would give this recipe a try. It is pretty simple, very little milk, a banana, and spirulina tablets. Well, I can safely say it doesn’t work. The drink isn’t hot, which is kind-of what make a latte a latte. Hot milk and flavor. That’s it. So popped this drink in the microwave for a little bit, and it wasn’t bad at first. Then the drink started to thicken up. It became foamy and literally not drinkable. It became more like a bubbly pudding.

Bottom Line: Nope.

Date-Sweetened Vegan Chai Latte with Tahini

I love sweet sesame/tahini foods. I already made a black sesame latte on the blog. But I think this latte is pretty awesome. What is nice about this drink is that it doesn’t use any premade milks in the recipe. You get the creamy texture from the tahini and almond butter. The downside? Oh man, this is a calorie bomb! About 300 calories in the drink, which for some, they don’t mind. Just something to be aware of.

What I really like is that the recipe involves brewing a strong chai tea, then blending it with the tahini, almond butter, and dates. That’s it. Blend it all up and it takes no longer than 10 minutes from turning the burner on the boil water, and cleaning out the blender. That might seem like a long time, but I think it is worth it.

Bottom Line: One of my favorites.

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Pumpkin Spice Turmeric Latte

Golden Latte’s are so frigging trendy right now. And it is a little funny reading a few people throw a little shade at the trend since they aren’t really traditional golden lattes. This recipe is clearly a new twist to it. I was pretty excited about this recipe when I saw it since I’ve been trying to cut caffeine from my diet since I can’t only have so much while pregnant. I also love pumpkin spiced good so it seemed like a match made in heaven.

Sadly Food by Mars just put WAY too many spices in here. The spices over powered the pumpkin flavor and had too much of a bite. What did work for the drink is the body. I like how she uses a blender to froth up the drink and the little bit of pumpkin and coconut oil adds a little body to the drink. I skipped the whipped coconut cream that was on top, but I am sure that would help balance out the spices… but it probably wouldn’t be enough.

Bottom Line: Too many spices

Posted by Jennifer in Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2016 Tags: food by mars, gingerbread, golden latte, latte, pumpkin spice, recipe roundup, spirulina, The First Mess, turmeric, tuulia, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2016, vegan richa, will frolic for food, yoga nutrition

4 comments

Sunday Reading 06-27-15 #67

June 26, 2016

067

Yesterday was VERY busy. Last week I threw out some chopped lettuce, some outer leaves of romaine, AND a whole head of lettuce! It was awful. The problem was that it frozen in my fridge. My produce drawers are so packed from my CSA I couldn’t fit the lettuce in it. Which is a big bummer because lettuce season is over for my CSA, we might get a head or two later in the summer. Feeling a little bad, and I thought I should try and get on top of my product and start cooking.

I didn’t scratch the surface of what I got from my CSA (1/2 bag of shelling peas, sugar snap peas, and snow peas combined, a big bag of kale, beets and beet greens, carrots with greens, garlic scapes, summer squash, slicing and pickling cucumber) So here is a quick break down of what I made yesterday:

Image Credit from Kittee’s Blog Cake Maker with her review of Protein Ninja by Terry Hope Romero

EDAMAME & PEA AVOCADO TOAST
I know I didn’t get any avocados or edamame from my CSA, but I did get a bunch of shelling peas. Which is a shame, because I still have some in my freezer from last year o____o How did that happen? I remember taking forever to go through a huge economy sized bag of peas from Wegman’s before touching the hand shelled peas. Oops. So I decided to go all out, double the recipe and use all the peas I got from my CSA (I assume I won’t be getting any next week). I skipped the pumpkin seeds and onion since I didn’t have any but holy moly was this good! I ate it on some Ezekiel Sprouted Bread with thin avocado slices. Perfect. The pumpkin seeds and onion would add even more amazing texture as well. I might have to freeze some of the spread to make it last, but I might be making some yummy sandwiches for lunch with this stuff. Aside from hand shelling, the recipe doesn’t take long at all. If you are using fresh peas, I suggest boiling them right away with the edamame to make sure they are fully cooked.

CARROT TOP PESTO
I got a bunch of carrots with their tops in tact. I never know what to do with them, so I decided to make some pesto to make a savory bread. There is extra, naturally. I modified the recipe from Wholly Goodness, which means I used some sweet basil and garlic scapes in the recipe. In the past I made the mistake of chucking all the greens in the food processor AND THAT IS A BAD IDEA! Take the time to pull off the delicate whispy leaves from the tough stalks. Well worth time.

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SAVORY ZUCCHINI PESTO QUICK BREAD
So I made that pesto JUST for a half baked idea for zucchini bread. I am VERY sick of sweet things… well for the most part. Now that I am not drinking beer and much coffee most drinks other than water are sweet. And to make things worse, most shelf stable snacks are sweet as well. Ugh! So I grabbed a zucchini from last week shredded it and modified this recipe. It turned out really nice, except it probably could of baked just a little longer. Oops. I upped the pesto to a quarter of a cup, and I had some vegan yogurt in the fridge. I might want to see if I can make a super vegan version that uses something other than vegan yogurt. So you might see a recipe on the blog in the future!

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SAVORY MISO TAHINI OAT BALLS
Probably mid-stream in my sugar rant to my husband, I had a very duh moment. I apparently pinned these savory oat balls on my pinterest board awhile ago. It was a big face palm moment. They are quick to make, and doesn’t use a particularly large amount of any ingredient. And I have to say Laci NAILED it. They are super salty, full of umami flavors, and have a hint of sweet that isn’t overwhelming. I think I might try flattening them out to make a bar next time, as the balls tend to be crumbly. Oh and don’t think I am a complete sugar hater. I’ve been eating plenty of ice cream, nice cream, and I have a box of strawberry shortcake cookies at my work.

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HOMEMADE STOCK & BEET CARROT GINGER SOUP
Let’s talk OLD SCHOOL! Dinner was a recipe from The Vegetarian Planet, published in 1997. This was a book that my Mother had, who always had a thing for eating no meat meals, which didn’t go completely unnoticed by her daughters. My older sister Lindsay was vegetarian for a few years (but gave up when living in rural France), and I tried going total vegetarian a few times as kid. Anyways, this soup is very easy to make, just a pound of beets, a pound of carrots, onion, and lots of stock. I had to use up the veggie scraps I’d been saving in my freezer, so made a batch of stock. Well, it was a group effort as my husband filled the pot with water and brought it to a boil while I was grocery shopping. I strained the veggies out later. I strongly recommend making this soup, and just use some vegan sour cream or yogurt.

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Closest Thing to a Wonder Drug? Try Exercise

Why am I not surprised I liked this article? Oh because I later discovered that it was written by Aaron E. Carroll. I seem to pretty much like everything he writes. I think most readers aren’t too surprised by this- exercise is good. He peppers through many studies that show how much it helps us. What I like is that he doesn’t always advocate intensive exercise, which can be good. But sometimes just walking for 30 minutes, is PLENTY. I can’t stress that enough when so many people bum it on the couch all day and say how they aren’t “the exercise type.”

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You’ll Never Guess What this Rum is Made From!

Okay I hate this clickbait title, but I like this idea. Rum is made from Sugar cane right? Well why not sugar from beets? Well, that is what this distillery is doing! I am excited because this makes for a greener rum since it is made in the USA. Plus, there seems to be a big push for “100% sugar cane” on labels, which makes sugar beets less desirable. Plus I am unsure if rum is ever fully vegan since sugar from sugar cane uses non-vegan filters. Let’s cross our fingers that this company has a 100% vegan process!

Posted by Jennifer in Sunday Reads Tags: avocado, beet, bright eyed baker, carrot top, edame, miso, oat balls, peas, pesto, produce, recipe roundup, shelling peas, soup, sunday reading, sunday reads, super strength health, tahini, vegetarian planet, washington post, zucchini

4 comments

Blog Recipe Round Up: Cookies

June 4, 2015

Every week I almost always make a batch of cookies. Why? They travel easily for my husband’s lunches. I mean, I eat them sometimes as well. Truthfully, sometimes making cookies at home isn’t necessarily cheaper than buying them in stores, but most of the time they are. So I decided to review some cookie recipes that were available online. I keep in mind when they should be eaten (aka how sweet and decadent they are) and how well they kept.

If any of you guys have tried these cookies with different results PLEASE SHARE! There are lots of variables to baking so hearing other people’s baking results help figure out how to get the correct results. Everyone- start baking!

Chai Spice Snickerdoodles

I had to alter this recipe a little. I forgot I never replaced my cardamon and therefore used a mixed garam masala instead for the snickerdoodle sugar mix. They still turned out delicious. I can’t image the cookies tasting that much different if I used the exact spice measurements given in the recipe.

These cookies are pretty darn sweet and fall under the dessert category. They were crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. They tasted great as a nice little snacks. But sadly I didn’t store them properly and some of them got stale. The best thing to do with them is to dunk the stale cookies in chai tea. Yeah, chai cookies in chai tea. It is amazing.

Bottom Line: Super sweet & Yummy

Quinoa Gingersnap Cookies

I always like when I find gluten-free recipes that don’t just use an all purpose mix. There is something nice to have control over every ingredient used. So I was a little happy to make these cookies, but was a little skeptical. Why? She only uses quinoa flour, which can have a specific aftertaste.

The cookies come together rather quickly, about 15 minutes, with a quick clean up. I skipped the rolled sugar outside, but it would definitely add a nice quality to the cookies. I also used only a small amount of brown sugar, using mostly just white. I think it worked out fine since I ended up using blackstrap molasses over normal molasses, which has much more of a bite.

The end result? Pretty awesome. They still had a little bit of a quinoa taste, and the blackstrap molasses definitely had a specific taste as well. But I felt pretty confident handing these cookies to my husband for his lunch. Five cookies have 12% calcium for the day and 10% iron. Not too bad honestly for unfortified cookies.

Bottom Line: Not bad, pretty nutritious

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am a little torn on these cookies. They are yummy, but cookie? I mean isn’t that a stretch? They are so fluffy and puffy they feel a little bit more like muffin tops than cookies. I am a little torn, they are delicious but I feel lied to that they are put into a cookie category.

They were great but there are two things I wish she suggested. One is be careful about overheating the butter, I didn’t put much thought into it and mixed in the chocolate chips, which melted into the batter. I got a cool marbling effect instead. No big deal. Second thing is that these cookies probably taste better the next day. Toss them in a bag or a well sealed container overnight, and they get even more moist. I’m not complaining.

Bottom Line: Puffy Cookies, which isn’t bad?

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

These cookies tasted amazing. The ingredients list is so short that I was a little afraid about how they would turn out. Answer: Fabulous, they turned out fabulous! They are soft, crumbly, delicate, and very lemony. Which makes them amazing, but didn’t fit the bill as “daily cookies for lunch.” I am planning on making these for my yearly Christmas cookies.

The only problem is the step where she makes you roll the cookie dough in powder sugar. I am conflicted since I didn’t get any “crinkle” effect on the cookie. I think the dough absorbed too much of the powdered sugar and the dough color wasn’t nearly dark enough to register. But it did give a little bit of a crusty outside, probably from the sugar melting? I would probably skip this step.

Bottom Line: Nice dessert cookie

Healthy Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

I think this cookie goes into the “it’s too healthy for a dessert category.” The recipe uses banana, peanut butter, rolled oats, and apple sauce to make the bulk of these cookies. The end result isn’t a tasty cookie. The nuts in the cookie gets soft and taste out of place. The cookies also didn’t have a normal texture as other cookies. They weren’t soft, pillowy, or crunchy. Instead they had a kind-of rubber feel when bitting into them.

The cookies aren’t nearly sweet enough, which makes me feel like they should been playing up savory flavors. Instead of chocolate chips maybe have some sun-dried tomatoes. Maybe chopped herbs, etc. I think that is my biggest complaint about “healthy” snacks, people are trying to cut down on sugar. By all means, I think things are usually too sweet, but not these cookies. They might of been better if I used normally sweetened mainstream peanut butter, but I can’t image by that much.

Bottom Line: Texture stinks, not sweet enough.

Teff Almond Butter Cookies

Man talk about recipe flop. Well, I have two theories about what happened. The obvious one is that I used teff not teff flour. My local store special ordered the wrong thing and I felt bad and thought I could grind it down into a flour myself. I didn’t do that great of a job.

The second theory is that I made them on a hot day and the almond butter and oil just were too much. I am thinking that if I maybe put the dough in the refrigerator for a few minutes the oils would of melted slower and made a more solid cookie.

But the cookies TASTE pretty good, which might motivate me to try the recipe again. Might being the key word because these cookies are expensive. Each ingredient is a big dent in the bank, which is a bummer because as mentioned the cookies were flat but tasty.

Bottom Line: Tasted great, not ruling them out yet as a flop

Posted by Jennifer in Food Review, Reviews Tags: cookies, Eating Bird Food, gluten-free, my darling vegan, peanut-free, recipe roundup, salted plains, soy-free, the post punk kitchen, The PPK, the skinny fork, The Vegan Chickpea, vegan

Blog Recipe Round-up: Tempeh Edition

April 22, 2015

This recipe roundup was a little tricky. Tempeh can be a vegan staple, but so many people are afraid to use it. It has a bitter taste when raw, and is a flavor that might take some time to grow on you. I also find that some people have a hard time imagining outside of the box for tempeh. A lot of recipes use it for a stir-fry.

I tried my best to find traditional and non-traditional recipes for tempeh. Some might seem traditional but is really a mix of cuisines. For example the gochujang tempeh with blasted broccoli might seem traditional but tempeh isn’t used in Korean cooking. It is still a great combination. Everything was pretty good, so read and pick something new to cook this week!

Stir-Fry with Tempeh with Black Bean Sauce

I am fairly big admirer of the No Meat Athlete. I like the guys sensabilities and he seems so down to earth. He makes vegetarianism/veganism seem so normal. Sometimes people make vegans seem like they are part of some specific subculture, punks, hippies, hipsters, etc.

The overall recipe is pretty much okay. Stir-fries are nice since you really can’t mess it up. BUT I am not a huge fan of using kale in a stir-fry. Although generally tasty, there are a lot of cooking technics I would switch up. I would of put more emphasis on browning the tempeh. I would of also toss the kale in the wok first and cooked it down for 3-5 minutes before adding the other veggies. The kale was too chewy, but if I cooked it any longer, the other veggies would of been over cooked.

Bottom Line: I would of used bok choy or nappa cabbage instead of kale, but very tasty.

Continue reading →

Posted by Jennifer in Food Review, Reviews Tags: delish knowledge, no meat athlete, produce on parade, recipe roundup, tempeh, the local vegan, the post punk kitchen, theppk, vegan miam