Vegan MOFO: Smokey Refired Beans

 Oh my God peoples! I just made THE MOST AMAZING REFRIED BEANS and I would like to share them with you!
Smokey Refried Beans:
- 1 pound dried pinto beans, soaked overnight, then rinsed
- 4 bay leaves
- 1 to 1.5 teaspoons sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 onion, quartered
- 1 teaspoon liquid smoke

Directions:
- Place all ingredients (except for liquid smoke) into a big pot and cover with about 1.5 inches of water.
- Bring everything to a boil, then cover and everything simmer for 2 hours.
- Drain your beans in a metal colander and pick out the bay leaves.
- Place your cooked bean and onion mixture into a food processor along with the liquid smoke and let it do its magic for a minute or two until nice and creamy.
- Taste and see if additional salt is needed and don't ruin your beans by over-salting them!

See you don't need oil or lard to make creamy refried beans, just use a food processor!

Viva Vegan's Tofu Chicharrones and Mojo Oven-Roasted Seitan

Viva Vegan's Tofu Chicharrones was alright, nothing amazing as far as the flavor goes. The marinade was pretty basic and consisted of soy sauce, liquid smoke, garlic, red wine vinegar, and agave syrup. I cheated and made this on the Forman so that I didn't have to fry it up in a bunch of oil. Any tofu I cook on the Forman I let cool and firm up a bit before chowing down, it just tastes better that way.

I made Mojo Oven-Roasted Seitan again since I found some oranges growing on some trees near my house along a bike trail. I really like the citrus-y marinade used in this dish, yum!

Lots of leftovers left to eat, hopefully I will get around to cooking more soon :)

A New Way to Prepare Tofu...

 So I have been trying to eat healthier and cook with less oil... I had some tofu that had been pressed with my Tofu Press, I sliced in about 8 slices width-wise and marinated it in some Soy Vay Teriyaki Sauce overnight... The next day, I pulled out my dusty George Forman Grill that I haven't used since going vegan (1.5 years ago) and decided it is time to try some tofu steaks on this damn thing! It worked perfectly! No oil, just grill the tofu about 5 minutes until browned to your liking. Fantastic! I think I will be using this grill all the time for tofu now if I can.

I dipped mine in some extra teryaki sauce out of the bottle... Yum!

Teriyaki Tofu with Cornstarch Coating

Ever since making VegWeb's General Tao's Tofu I have been in love with fried tofu coated with cornstarch. The one thing that I wasn't so thrilled about however was how much time it took to coat each little piece. I remember reading somewhere that the trick is to just put the tofu in a ziploc bag with the cornstarch and shake it for a few minutes to easily coat the tofu... Problem solved!

This time around I had a brand new bottle of Teryaki Sauce from Trader Joe's so I decided to put it to good use for this recipe. Just to let you know at this point in time I have hardly any fresh veggies in my house. Your favorite fresh veggies added towards the end of frying the tofu would be awesome in this dish. Think asparagus, zucchini, red bell pepper, broccoli, green onions, etc.

Ingredients:

- 1 block Extra Firm Tofu*, drained and pressed
- 1/2 cup Cornstarch
- 1 & 1/2 teaspoons Ener-G Egg Replacer mixed with 5 tablespoons Water
- 3 tablespoons Oil
- 8 ounces Frozen Broccoli Florets
- 1/2 cup Carrots, julienned
- 1/2 cup Teriyaki Sauce: Soy Vay or Trader Joe's brand taste identical
- 1 tablespoon Cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon Water

* I used tofu that had been frozen and thawed to produce a more "meaty" texture

Directions:
- Cut drained and pressed tofu into cubes.
- Coat with Ener-G and water mixture.
- Take your 1/2 cup of cornstarch and put half of it in the bottom of a gallon sized ziploc bag. Add coated tofu and then the other half of the cornstarch on top. Shake for a minute until the tofu looks evenly coated with the cornstarch.
- Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a wok. Add tofu and fry until golden on all sides.
- While tofu is frying quickly make your sauce by mixing together teryaki sauce and cornstarch mixed with water.
- Add frozen broccoli florets and let them cook for a minute.
- Add teriyaki sauce mixture, it should thicken in a minute or two.
- Once sauce begins to thicken add julienned carrots. Mix around for a minute and serve.

A Great Video About Bottled Water!

Just double click on the video and it will take you to YouTube where you can watch the full size version!

P.S. Get rid of your expensive bottled water habit and buy a Brita filter!

VegWeb's Melty Cheese

My favorite cheeze sauce so far has been Melty Cheese. I love it on nachos and also I use it to make macaroni and cheeze.

Tips:

- If you find you need a bit more of a cheezy flavor, add more nutritional yeast flakes, 1 tablespoon at a time.
- When your cooking the cheeze sauce, whisk constantly, don't let it burn or your sauce will taste nasty.

***For my nachos, I topped my mound of tortilla chips with refried black beans, pickled jalapenos, tomatoes, green onions, black olives, Tofutti sour cream, homemade guacamole (mashed avocado+sea salt+lime juice), and melty cheese***

Roasting Veggies

Believe it or not, I had never had a roasted vegetable until going vegan, which probably explains why I despised so many veggies before... I'm talking to you brussels sprouts and asparagus... Now I always roast my veggies, it's the best way to eat them! I prefer to save on fat by coating my veggies in cooking spray instead of using oil.

A cookbook I own, called Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven, has a few pages (96-99) dedicated to veggie roasting times and temperatures for veggies of all types... So I am sharing a few of my favorites with you!

Zucchini or Summer Squash (sliced down the middle, lengthwise):

375 F for 20 minutes

Asparagus or Mushrooms (whole):

400 F for 5 to 10 minutes (you want asparagus to be tender crisp not mushy!)

Cauliflower (florets) , Broccoli (2 inch chunks, stems peeled), or Brussels Sprouts (small ones whole, larger ones cut in half lengthwise):

375 F cauliflower 15 minutes, broccoli 20 to 25 minutes, brussels sprouts 15 to 20 minutes (do not let them get mushy!)

Carrots (2 inches long):

375 F for 30 minutes

Coat all the veggies listed above with cooking spray and your favorite seasonings before roasting them... My all time favorite vegetable seasoning is Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning!