TJ's Product Reviews: Vegan Mozzarella Style Shreds & Gingerbread Cake and Baking Mix

2 products I snatched up recently at Trader Joe's were Vegan Mozzarella Style Shreds & Gingerbread Cake and Baking Mix (I believe this may be seasonal as I picked it up around Christmas). I am going to subject myself to the wrath of many Daiya loving vegans but I HATE DAIYA SHREDS WITH A PASSION as far as I am concerned they nasty and stick to your teeth, don't melt as pretty as I would like, and basically I want to gag just thinking about them... DAIYA WEDGES on the other hand are another story, I love the shit out of those except for the fact that they use palm oil... well, "sustainable" palm oil they call it. Anyways, I am getting sidetracked, I really enjoyed these TJ's shreds! They were maybe around $3.50 and melted nicely and didn't smell like vomit (Always a plus for vegan cheese). I made a few piles of nachos with them and boy were they good! I think these shreds melt better than Daiya (teeth gunk) shreds anyways.

Next up, yes, I know, I actually baked something holy shit... TJ's Gingerbread Cake and Baking Mix which is vegan by default and only becomes toxic poison if you add chicken periods, oops I mean chicken eggs... I of course chose not to poison myself and used Ener-G Egg Replacer for the egg. You could also do the ground flax and water method to substitute the egg (Google: Flax Egg Recipe). Aside from the vegan egg replacement, the only other ingredients specified on the box were vegetable oil (I used canola) and water. This turned out bomb for me! Though, mind you, I think I added like 15 minutes onto the baking time for a knife to come out of the center clean... I don't have an oven thermometer so I am not sure if it is my oven or a problem others might have.

Till tomorrow,

Peace.Love.Vegan

Amy

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

Vegweb's Vegan Date Cake

Vegweb's Vegan Date Cake is fabulous. My Step Mom has made this cake for me before but I thought it wasn't as flavorful. So this time, I followed another vegwebber's suggestion and added some spices: 1 tablespoon each of ground ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I also made heart-shaped cupcakes and baked them for 15 to 20 minutes. Perfect!

Lazy Dinner

So I just can't get enough of these Grilled Tofurkey Sandwiches!!! This time I had 2 english muffins to use up... Fantastic as usual!

I also made a cake referred to as "Pouding Chomeur" from The Vegan Mouse and it was pretty good, but definitely not very pretty... I was planning on taking it to the monthly birthday celebration at my work but decided against it. I would give the cake 3.5 out of 5 stars though for taste.

Another Batch of Empanadas!

I made Empanadas again! I am getting better at making these puppies with every batch! I have learned to roll the dough nice and thin and assemble them on my cutting board (She says to use the palm of your hand, which I find frustratingly impossible). Next time, I am going to try stuffing them with something from my imagination instead of using the recipe for the filling. Viva Vegan! is a really good cookbook you should definitely check it out!

Served with the "Green Aji Sauce" sauce out of Viva Vegan!

Viva Vegan!'s Sweet and Spicy Seitan-Potato Empanadas

I hate to do this, but I am talking about a cookbook recipe and not a recipe I can actually give you a link to... But here is Viva Vegan! on Amazon if you want to buy it. These Empanadas were A LOT of work, definitely something to do on the weekend so you will have leftovers to snack on throughout the week. The Red Seitan used in this recipe is to-die-for! This will most definitely be my new go-to seitan recipe! I like that most of the recipes in this cookbook don't have too many crazy ingredients and most recipes seem totally doable, unlike some of the cookbooks I have. So, enough with the blabbing, here are the pictures!

Red Seitan (The recipe for Red Seitan produces 4 of these little loaves):

Empanada Filling (Potatoes, raisins, green olives, peas, carrots, onions, and Red Seitan in a delicious gravy sauce):

Baked Empanadas:

Inside the cooked Empanadas:

The only problem I had with my first attempt at empanada making was that I must have not rolled the dough thin enough because I didn't get 10 empanadas worth of dough and I had like half of the filling left... More empanada making this weekend!

VegWeb's "Chicken" Taquitos

 These "Chicken" Taquitos were DA BOMB! LOL... But seriously, so easy! And dipped with my Chipotle Vegan Mayo I think I died and went to heaven.

Here is my VegWeb review for the recipe (With pictures added):

"These were both easy and delicious! I added a packet of fajita seasoning to the pan and a little bit of water with it. I didn't even need the salsa for blending, it blended just fine (It may have been a tasty addition though).

I made some amazing chipotle mayo for dipping these babies: 1/2 cup vegan mayo, 1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce, and a little bit of plain non-dairy milk to get it to blend.

I baked mine and they turned out perfect. I microwaved the leftovers and they were perfect too! Really easy recipe!"

VegWeb's Vanilla Cupcakes

I love this recipe for Vanilla Cupcakes off VegWeb! I have made it a few times now and it never disappoints. I never change a thing, except for baking the cupcakes a bit longer due to my crappy oven.

I frosted my cupcakes with store-bought Duncan Hines Classic Vanilla Creamy Home-Style Frosting which is vegan according to PETA.

Vegweb's Crazy Good Banana Muffins

Wow, these Crazy Good Banana Muffins off VegWeb were crazy good!

I only made a few changes:

- I used 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour and used 1 cup all purpose flour.
- I added about 1/4 cup dried cranberries because I wanted to use them up.

These turned out fantastic! Strong banana flavor and super moist... Yum :)

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.