The Post-A-Thon... Massive Unload Part 11

I have decided I will continue the "Massive Unload" theme... I had a week full of eating bizarrely paired leftovers and a crazy weekend... Here are some slop worthy photos for real foodies haha:

 Slop Style #1: Indian Potato Cauliflower dish, Teriyaki Baked Tofu, Roasted Broccoli, all smothered in Miso Gravy with minced baby bellas added while heating the gravy leftovers (Why did I not think of the shroom addition earlier?!)

Slop Style #2: Roasted Broccoli, Creole Roasted Carrots, Indian Potato Cauliflower dish, Indian Eggplant Potato dish, and remainder of the Miso (And now baby bella) Gravy smothered on top.

I did do a bunch of cooking and food prep yesterday (Saturday) and today (Sunday) to kind of calm my nerves for the remainder of the week. I have food to eat for the entire week in my fridge ready to go so I can relax! I made some Vegan Ranch and prepped a huge container of salad base (Romaine, cabbage, and carrots) and have containers full of prepared add ins: Kidneys, sliced black olives, corn, green onions, cilantro, and cubed teriyaki baked tofu so that lunches will be a breeze! I also made VWAV's Black Bean, Mushroom, and Quinoa Stuffed Peppers, VW's General Tao's Tofu, Brown Rice, Calrose Rice, Life Enchanting Lentil Soup (Recipe received from the Mother unit, I will see if I can find a link), Spicy Eggplant with Tofu, and Maple Glazed Brussels. I do plan on making a batch of Crock Pot Seitan for an easy "Meaty" item to pair easily with items for din din.

Today I made Vegan Nachos, but subbed some almond pulp (Moist from just making plain almond milk) for the cashews. I also used almond milk instead of the usual soy for this recipe and it worked out beautifully! I will be doing this now indefinitely as I have an indefinite supply of almond pulp! These bad boys had the "Cheeze", VW's Sausage Crumbles, homemade refried beans, black olives, homemade guac, tomatoes, vegan sour cream, and green onions as toppings... Score!

I also made a huge pot (12 cups of just liquid homies) of Life Enchanting Lentil Soup. I love soup, maybe it's a vegan thing? I just love how warm and comforting it is and how many healthy ingredients you can jam pack into one serving :) Soup for me all this week... Squeeee <3 I will probably jazz it up with some additional spices and throw in some precut kale.

Lastly, I had a huge 2 pound bag of brussels from Costco that needed to be roasted and slathered in something. I have been reading Leafygreensandme for awhile and this lady is such an amazing cook that it scares the crap out of me quite frankly... I can only aspire to be such an amazing cook and recipe writer! Her recipe for Maple Glazed Brussles Sprouts was right up my alley, read: 4 INGREDIENTS THAT I HAVE ON HAND! I love her technique though with cooking down the maple syrup! My stupid ass would have just tossed the brussels in maple syrup without cooking it down so that it coats the sprouts ever so perfectly! I COULD EAT THESE ALL DAY EVERYDAY!

Go make some!

Peace, Love, and Veganism <3

Gravy and Indian... Yup

^ Not together, though I am not guaranteeing this will never happen... I will welcome you to my bizarre world of food pairing, seriously bizarre peoples... This is one of the reasons I usually just show the dish alone and not the actual plate I eat. Ha! I will let you in to my world, just this once for my gravy posts:) Kidding...

So first, I had potatoes, which grew into parsley garlic mashed potatoes, these mashed potatoes felt a little nakee (Yup that's how I say it) and wanted a good slathering of gravy. I made two different types of gravy, both from VegWeb and my nakee mashed potatoes were satisfied.

First off was Vegetarian "Chicken" Gravy. This was very good gravy! I used the Superior Touch's No Chicken Bouillon which is good stuff! I am happy that this is easy to find now that Mother's Market stopped carrying No-Chicken Broth Powder in the bulk bins :(

(Mashed Potatoes with Vegetarian Chicken Gravy, Creole Seasoned Roasted Zucchini and Poblano Peppers, and Tofu Scramble)

Next off was Miso Gravy. This was alright, I used white miso and I think I would have liked it better with red. I added some poultry seasoning and a few extra tablespoons of flour to thicken it more. Not bad but not insanely good. I was happy to use up some of the miso paste that has been parked in my fridge for the past few months.

(Mashed Potatoes with Miso Gravy, Baked Teriyaki Tofu, and Easy Elotes)

On to the Indian! Manjula's Kitchen is such an awesome resource to learn how to cook some easy and tasty Indian Food. I've made both these dishes before but this time around I tweaked them a little!

Aloo Gobi with green peas added this time as she suggests and I doubled the green chili's, diced them, and added them in with the "paste". Loved it!

Aloo Baingan was much better this time around! I doubled the spice/ paste ingredients except for the salt which made the dish so much better since last time this was really mild and bland in my opinion.

Peace, Love, and Veganess <3

The Post-A-Thon... Massive Unload Part 6

Manjula's Kitchen (Indian Food):

Have you checked out this blog, Manjula's Kitchen? Sweet Baby Jesus, what an easy way to learn how to cook some bomb Indian food! All vegetarian and an abundance of vegan recipes with easy to find ingredients (Mind you, I live in So Cal, not out in the sticks)!

I made 4 dishes within a few hours and I loved all of them except for the Chana Masala (Pictured above), but mind you, this is the second recipe I've tried for this dish and I just don't get what the hype is and I am a huge fan of chickpeas!

Here are the other 3 dishes I loved:

 Aloo Masala

 Aloo Gobi

And my favorite so far... Aloo Mattar!

Go try and cook some Indian food! The main ingredients seem to center around Potatoes, Tomatoes, Green Chiles, Cilantro, Cumin Seeds, Turmeric, Hing, Ginger Paste, and Oil... 

Easy Peasy for Sheezy <3

The Post-A-Thon... Massive Unload Part 2

Part 2 of the Post-A-Thon will be called...

Slop: What you do when you don't have much money but need to eat some random food... 

You slop together what you have and pray it works... My slop skills have gotten pretty good, mind you, from lots of trial and error when my vegan slop journey began, 2.5 years ago :)

I eat a lot of rice and quinoa... as far as rice goes, I usually stick to my ever evolving, modification love child, Sweet and Spicy Fried Rice... All you need is cold cooked calrose rice, Braggs or soy sauce, Thai sweet chili sauce, and sriracha or chili paste, and oil... Then veggies (fresh or frozen), maybe some baked tofu if you have it... Honestly, whatever you have on hand that would taste legit in an Asian style rice dish here are a few examples: 

This version was frozen mixed veggies, onions, pickled diakon radish, and teriyaki baked tofu

This version was frozen peas and green beans, mushrooms, teriyaki baked tofu, and avocado added at the end <3

When it comes to quinoa, I enjoy it in slop stirfry dishes... I use cold quinoa cooked in my rice cooker (1 cup quinoa (rinsed), 2 cups veggie broth, and some cracked pepper) and add it at the end of cooking the rest of the ingredients in a slop dish. A few examples:

Indian slop: Pan fried drained and pressed tofu seasoned up with Indian spices, chickpeas seasoned with Indian spices, onions, bell peppers, canned diced tomatoes or tomato sauce (cannot remember), garlic, and quinoa, topped with cilantro.

Very similar dish but ran out of cilantro so not as purdy :(

I made a "Curry" (Quinoa underneath), with many of the same ingredients as before in addition to canned baby corn and coconut milk. I had cilantro this time :)

Tofu is such a go to protein for me because it is cheap, easy to quickly make, and delicious... This is a tofu stirfry where the tofu was coated with cornstarch, then fried until golden, next I added bells and onions, then some La Choy brand Sweet and Sour Sauce I had sitting in the fridge as well as some garlic chili paste.

I made a vegan lasagna but had extra noodles and lasagna fillings, so I slopped this together to make an easy pasta type meal (I gave the entire tray of lasagna I cooked to my grandma cause she loves it).

Lazy College Kid's Easy Falafel

Lazy College Kid's Easy Falafel is another easy recipe that I make quite often off of VegWeb. I serve it just like the recipe suggests: In a pita with hummus, lettuce, tomato, and dill pickles. It is fantastic this way. I bake my falafel balls for 30 minutes at 375 F. This time I added an extra tablespoon or two of chopped parsley and 1 teaspoon of curry powder, this is not really necessary though.

VegWeb's Veggie Manchurian

The Veggie Manchurian off VegWeb is fantastic! I had never tried Indian food before going vegan and it's amazing how much more variety I eat now... Food used to be kind of boring until I was forced to think (well cook) outside of the box a bit... Vegan cooks are so creative!

Notes/ Modifications:

- Instead of 1 Tablespoon each of garlic, chili powder, coriander use 1 Teaspoon (I think this was an error). I still use the full tablespoon of garlic.
- I double the recipe for the balls (First 8 ingredients) but leave the sauce amount the same, the first time I made this I remember having way too much extra sauce.
- Corn flour = Corn starch.
- I bake the balls until they look golden brown and use a mini muffin pan to cook them in so they will retain their shape more easily.

How the balls should look when they're done in the oven: