Sunday Cooking and VWAV Reviews

I cooked a shit ton of food today and probably spent half the day on the kitchen, which me being the odd ball that I am, and not having a car at the moment, actually enjoyed it.

I started off my cooking frenzy with VWAV's Carrot Raisin Muffins. These turned out pretty good and I got 2 extra muffins out of the recipe. I thought these could be a bit sweeter (never mind i just ate another one), my brother thought they were fantastic. I give this recipe 4 out of 5 stars.

Next up, was VWAV's Lemon Gem Cupcakes. These were an epic fail for me but I do admit, I really suck at making desserts and baking. First off, the cupcakes didn't rise much and ended up sinking once they got out of the oven. No big deal right?

I will just cover them with the frosting. I go to make the frosting, another epic fail. I used EB buttery sticks for the recipe and something went wrong and I had to maybe double the powdered sugar and it was still runny and now way too sweet. Next fail, the cupcakes stuck to the liners. I was pissed, I ate a few, and threw the rest away :(

I then made my weekly batch of jalapeno flavored refried beans and

4 Rainbow Salads for my work lunches

Next, I had some brussles that needed to be used up so I prepped them (discarding gross leaves, cutting off the stem, and slicing them in half), coated them with some cooking spray and seasoned them with S&P and roasted them at 350F for 30 minutes (bigger ones might take a bit longer)... Feakin delish!

I then proceeded to make VWAV's Curried Split Pea Soup and this was a winner! First time cooking with split peas and this turned out great, thank God.

I also made VWAV's BBQ Pomegranate Tofu and it turned out alright. I left off the pomegranate seed topping cause that just seemed like a pain in the ass to do. The texture of the baked tofu was awesome but again, another BBQ sauce recipe from this book that just didn't tickle my fancy, too tomato-ey and sweet, and way too much for this recipe! I say you could easily half the BBQ sauce meant to bake the tofu in, I didn't even put the full amount on the tofu and ended up scraping the sauce off. It was way too much! Not a complete fail, but I won't be making this again. Though I will use her tofu baking technique: 2 tablespoons oil + 1 tablespoon Braggs, cut the tofu into 8 pieces, place tofu in the oil and Braggs mixture until completely coated, bake at 350 F for 30 minutes, turn over after 15, and add sauce and bake an additional 15 minutes. Perfect texture!

 Lastly, I made a batch pf Viva Vegan's Yellow Garlic Rice, I always make this dish when I have some cilantro to use up, I also used half an onion too and sauteed it along with the garlic... Yum

Rainbow Salad

I love salad people! I eat it almost everyday drenched in Vegan Ranch. I always make a bunch at a time (Think 3 heads of romaine) and put it in a gallon sized ziploc so I can have a quick and amazing salad with only 1 days worth of chopping!

Here's my salad for this week: Romaine, Red Bell Pepper, Green Onions, Black Olives, Purple Cabbage, Carrots, Corn, Edamame, Black Beans (I add these day of so they don't get gross), and Grilled Teriyaki Tofu... Delish! I also really like peas in my salad but was sadly out.

The Witchy Kitchen's Beyond Easy Dinner Rolls and Vegan Caesar Salad

Dinner Rolls:

So I have been checking out this blog lately called The Witchy Kitchen and decided to make some Beyond Easy Dinner Rolls along with some caesar salad for a simple lunch. Oh my, these rolls turned out fantastic!

To make these rolls vegan, I substituted the egg using Ener-G replacer for 1 egg (1.5 tsp Ener-G mixed with 2 tbsp warm water). I also used black and white sesame seeds instead of poppy seeds because that's what I had on hand. Next time, I will use more "butter" to coat the top of the rolls since I skimped on it a little this time and buy some poppy seeds (the sesame seeds did not make the rolls taste bad or anything).

Caesar Salad:

I have to admit, I didn't whip up my own batch of caesar salad dressing because Follow Your Heart makes an entire line of salad dressings with many, if not most of them being vegan. I haven't tried all of them, but I can tell you for sure the Vegan Caesar, Vegan Honey Mustard, and Thousand Island Dressings are fantastic! I haven't tried a dressing from Follow Your Heart I haven't liked yet.

The additional vegan salad dressing flavors, besides the ones I just listed are: Sesame Dijon, Creamy Garlic, Lemon Herb, Sesame Miso, Organic Balsamic Vinegar, and Organic Italian Vinaigrette. Here is their website: Follow Your Heart the dressings are listed under the Organic Salad Dressings and Fresh and Naturals tabs.