Garbanzo Salad Sandwiches, Veggie Pizza, and Teriyaki Tofu Stirfry

Today I made Garbanzo Bean Salad Sandwiches, veggies incorporated into the salad this time were green onions and bell peppers... I toasted some bread, slathered one side with AVK's Cheezy Mayo, slathered the other side with vegan mayo, topped with the Garbanzo Bean Salad, seaweed seasoning, romaine, and tomato.

Next up was some leftover pizza from this weekend served up with some Vegan Ranch. The pizza toppings included Tofurkey Italian Sausages, red onion, spinach, mushrooms, bell peppers, and a few slices of tomato. I used TJ's refrigerated pizza sauce and TJ's refrigerated whole wheat pizza dough... Shit's bomb!

Lastly, I cooked up a Cornstarch Coated Teriyaki Tofu and Broccoli Stirfry for a coworkers lunch tomorrow ($5) and some leftovers for me to indulge in.

Today's Quick Meals: Sweet & Spicy Fried Rice and Taco Soup

Tonight I made a pretty much weekly batch of Taco Soup to provide myself with a few meals and to sell the rest to coworkers. This is a foul proof recipe, I've never had any complaints... I served it with the usual dollop of Tofutti Sour Cream and added some green onions (Cilantro would have been better).

I also had some random veggies leftover from making sushi as well as a bunch of Baked Teriyaki Tofu and a batch of scold stick rice from my rice cooker so I decided on another tried and true recipe: Sweet & Spicy Fried Rice. The rice included about a cup of frozen mixed veggies, grated carrots, pickled daikon, spicy daikon, green onions, and Baked Teriyaki Tofu... I served it up with some roasted, seasoned seaweed slices.

Recipe Reviews, Baked Teriyaki Tofu Recipe, and Enchiladas

This week I made quite a few things, some turned out disastrous since either I am semi-retarded when it comes to subbing brown for white rice or the recipe was a bunk one.

I had a head of cauliflower that need to be used up and saw this recipe for Spicy Black Bean and Cauliflower Salad on vegweb.com so I decided to give it a go. Well, this wasn't anything amazing to me, in fact I couldn't eat much of it cause I felt like it was too boring to eat alone and ended up throwing it into enchiladas.

I also had some of AVK's "tuna salad" to use up and made more "panini's" (mine are obviously not, hence the english muffins)... These No-Tuna Panini's are truly bomb!

Her recipe for the Cheezy Mayo that goes in these panini's is to die for, seriously, I loaded so much of it on I ran out and had to make another batch! I seriously lick the tupperware clean and you can make it in less than a 5 minutes!

I also made some vegan sushi again finally! Fillings included bell pepper, green onion, pickled daikon, spicy daikon, avocado, baked teriyaki tofu, shredded carrots, and english cucumber.

Baked Teriyaki Tofu Recipe:

Ingredients:
1 block extra firm tofu, drained, pressed, and cut width-wise into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slabs
1/2 cup Soy Vay Teriyaki Sauce or Trader Joe's Soyaki Sauce

Directions:
- Add the Teriyaki Sauce to the tofu and marinate overnight in a tupperware, flipping the tupperware a few times.
- Preheat the oven to 400F, spray a glass baking dish and layout the tofu slabs, drizzle any additional marinade that hasn't absorbed into the tofu.
- Bake the tofu for 40 minutes flipping half way.
- Place cooled baked tofu in the fridge till ready to use.

I like to store my sushi rolls as pictured, with saran wrap, it keeps the avocado from browning to quickly, and the rice from hardening up right away... These rolls need to be eaten within 24 hours or they just aren't that good.

I used AVK's Seitan mixture that was leftover from the Tex-Mex Taco Salad as well as the Spicy Black Bean and Cauliflower recipe leftovers and made two different types of enchiladas. I made a batch of Tex-Mex Taco Salad Seitan + canned refried beans and another batch of Spicy Black Bean and Cauliflower + refried beans, both casseroles were topped with Vcon's Roasted Chile Sauce (From the Potato and Kale Enchiladas with Roasted Chili Sauce recipe) and AVK's Tex-Mex Taco Salad chipotle dressing that I thined out with additional soy milk for easier drizzling. The seitan stuffed enchiladas were especially good, not that photogenic though.

Lastly, I made Vcon's Hot and Sour Soup with Wood Ears and Nappa Cabbage... I did not enjoy the texture of wood ear mushrooms in this soup, it was kind of like chewing on rubber and I added more broth to the recipe cause this wasn't soupy enough for me. Next time, I think I will just sub crimini mushrooms instead.

Just some pictures... Sorry for the lack of attention to my blog... Life has been well, Life

Some random, non recipe stuffs included...

A pizza made with TJ's pizza crust (to die for), with TJ's pizza sauce, roasted garlic, mushrooms, bell peppers, red onions, and spinach

Taco Soup (A recipe easily found here) with a dollop of vegan sour cream

Tofu Stirfry with TJ's General Tao's Sauce

My bro made some oatmeal and dried cranberry cookies, way legit :)

Some food inspired from recipes:

VW's Roasted Breakfast Potatoes...

and a Tofu Scramble turned into both a sandwich with Tofurkey Hickory Slices...

And some yummy breakfast burrito type things, eaten for din din of course :)

VW's Melty Cheese turned into Nachos

and a weird cheese, trees, and AVK seitan pasta dish

I also used AVK's Jalapeno Gravy to top off VW's Cheesy Bean and Cheese Enchiladas

 

Now for recipes I made...

Vegan Tables Split Yellow Pea Dahl (was ok)

VW's They Won't Believe It's Vegan Lasagna

VW's Minestrone

AVK's Poblano Pasta Salad (Yum)

AVK's Fettuccine Alfredo (gross but I think I used the wrong wine)

AVK's Southwestern Wheat-Meat Loaf (Alright but crappy texture) with Jalapeno Gravy and homemade potato salad... Looks like terds, yes, I know

AVK's No-Tuna Paninis (Yum)

Peace, Love, and Vegan

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

VWAV and some other stuffsssss

I have a deep love for easy teriyaki peasy tofu stirfys... To coat or not to coat my tofu with cornstarch is always the question... Coat is usually, pretty much always the winner! I have been making my own teriyaki sauce lately, basically just a mixture of garlic, ginger, Bragg's (or soy sauce), brown sugar, pepper, and maybe some sesame oil. I have also been adding crushed red pepper flakes to give the dish some spice. And I found this jar of garlic ginger paste at the Persian market that makes things so much easier to throw together.

My first teriyaki tofu stirfry was coated tofu with some carrots, collard greens, broccoli, asparagus, and onions for the veggies... Fail proof as usual.

 The second teriyaki tofu stirfry was coated as well and as always, delicious! For the veggies I used the carrots, onions, edamame, and asparagus.

 I made my weekly batch of fat free refried beans, this was my little dipping setup served with tortilla chips :)

I made a super delicious cherry banana smoothie, made with 1 non frozen banana, 2 big handfuls of frozen cherries and a cup of vanilla soy milk... Fantastical!

I made a double batch of VWAV's Chickpea Cutlets cause of all the hype they come with, along with VWAV's Mushroom Gravy and some of my homemade mashed potatoes that I seasoned with garlic and dried parsley... The Cutlets were a total fail for me, I baked them and they seemed undercooked so I left them in the oven for longer, forgot about them and they turned out hard as a brick so I threw them away... This pick shows the underdone Cutlet. The Gravy was awesome though!

Lastly, I made VWAV's tried and true Stuffed Peppers which I have pretty much mastered. I always use 5 peppers instead of 4 and when I'm selling them to coworkers, I cut them in half for easier tupperware packing. I mix in the cilantro now and probably double the amount instead of using it as a garnish. Legit as always.

Peace, Love, and Veganess <3