Vegan MoFo # 12 Breaded Seitan Parmesan & Seitan Meatballs

My husband doesn't cook at all. He loves food movies, cooking shows, & will even flip through my cooking magazines. Besides the occasional grilling, he doesn't and has stated he has no desire to cook. That's completely ok with me since I love to cook and would maybe even get a little pissed if he figured out how to make something better than me. It also means I don't ever have to wash dishes, which is our deal: I cook, he does the dishes and seeing as I hate doing the dishes I feel like I won there anyway.
That being said Matt is awesome in one category of cooking, and that is meal planning. I will sometimes call him with absolutely no idea what to make and he will spew off a few ingredients or ideas for things that sound ok to him. Always asking me if I think that would be good or if it would work. I can't think of a time he has been wrong, and it's actually very exciting to have someone come up with stuff I wouldn't think of. This meal was entirely his idea. It's a take on one of his old favorites, chicken parmesan. He wanted me to try to make it with seitan instead of a chicken substitute.It's served exactly how he used to get it when he ordered it in a restaurant when he was a kid. The only difference is that he wanted spaghetti and seitan meatballs to accompany his parm instead of just spaghetti. So here is my cooking experiment for the night:


I used my usual method for cooking seitan (posted in a previous blog) but rolled the pieces of seitan into balls and wrapped them individually in foil. I added fresh basil & rosemary & some dried oregano & fennel to the dry mix.



This is the first ball, out of the oven & cut open



Meatballs



I breaded the seitan with homemade breading that I had in the cupboard, added fresh herbs to the mix and baked at 350 for about 30 minutes flipping halfway through



After it came out of the oven I topped it with sauce & Daiya cheese and let it melt in the broiler


Spaghetti & Meatballs



Everything plated and ready for dinner


Now I know I have mentioned that my dog's nicknamed Noodles. I call her noodles so often she responds to it. She seriously wont leave the kitchen when any kind of pasta is being made. Vegan & italian, just like her mom. So I couldn't post this blog without these two pictures.


Thanks Mom!
That's it for now. I have a movie to go watch with Mr. meal planner and Mrs. noodles.

Vegan Mofo # 11 Mini Pizza's & A Restaurant Review

This is just a simple dinner of mini pizzas I made on ciabatta bread with marinara and Daiya cheese. The bowl contains soy boy tofu ravioli, which Matt really loves. This is not a culinary masterpiece, but sometimes convenience is necessary and still delicious.



Since my dinner post was so small I wanted to take this opportunity to review a new vegan friendly place in Chicago, Bricks on the Run


They have a restaurant called Bricks, that I assume because it is so popular they opened Bricks on the Run. It's a take and bake pizza joint & they deliver. They make sure you know it's take and bake when you call because I assume they have gotten quite a few complaints. I imagine a house full of drunk guys during Sunday afternoon football ordering a pizza and being super pissed that they have to cook it when it gets there.
Their vegan pizza comes with Daiya cheese and you get your choice of 3 veggies for toppings. We were just excited to get a vegan pizza delivered to the house we didn't really think about it being all that good. The pizza is actually awesome. It's a thin whole wheat crust, a great sauce and the key is to get roasted garlic as one of your toppings. It's actually not expensive, plus they send out mailer coupons and you can print coupons online. For my birthday we got 2 large vegan pizzas with a half off coupon for under 30 dollars, one with mushroom, roasted red pepper, and tomatoes, the other with spinach, mushroom, and the above mentioned roasted garlic. I then sprinkled Upton's seitan sausage on half of each pizza. Yes, I could make a pizza this good and probably better at home, but to finally have the convenience of making a phone call and having a vegan pizza at my doorstep in 20 minutes(even if it's not cooked) is really nice

Vegan MoFo # 10 Teriaki Seitan Kabobs

My Parents got Matt a really nice grill for his 30th birthday. We started getting really into grilling last summer when we used to grill on our fire escape on the third floor of the old building we lived in. We did some pretty amazing stuff but it's time consuming and uncomfortable to try to make a great meal using a grill like this. It's just so small that it's hard to grill a decent amount of food and Matt was constantly crouching down and it felt uncomfortable.


So when my Dad showed up one Saturday and went into our back yard and surprised Matt by setting up his birthday present, we were pretty excited. The idea of being able to grill in an upright position and not having to balance plates on fire exit stairs was a foreign concept. We both freaked when we saw this and vowed to grill unless the weather was awful.




I'm not going to pretend that we fought through terrible November Chicago weather while making dinner, seeing as the high was 60 today. We did, however, make a delicious meal from the seitan I made yesterday. Dinner tonight was teriyaki seitan skewers with pineapple & peppers & ginger garlic grilled green beans.


skewers ready for the grill


all set up for basting


beans in grill skillet


greens & kabobs on one grill at the same time...high class


almost done


Finished product...the char on the pineapple is so good. Taking an equal bite of the seitan, peppers, & pineapple all at once was perfect!


Grilled ginger garlic green beans, with grill marks but still a crunch.

The part of grilling that I love the most is that we get to cook dinner together. I may do all the prep but Matt gets to execute everything. The hanging out in the back yard with Matt & Riot means more to me than the food. Matt and I talk, I flip through books/magazines, Riot smells everything and chases the occasional backyard rat. It's the idea that dinner becomes a little adventure for us, and at the end, we get to eat.
So you may not find me standing next to that grill when there are snowflakes falling and my toes are freezing, but until that happens, we will use it as much as we can.

That's it for the week. Have a great weekend, and we'll see you Monday!

Vegan Mofo #9 Seitan My Way

Being vegan for as long as I have, I have been forced to eat numerous plates of spongy, dry, or flavorless seitan. I have also tried numerous cooking methods, some of which worked out alright, and some that produced dishes that made me feel like I was eating a chewy, flavorless mess. Both boiling and cooking in broth never deemed the right consistency for me. After utilizing a sausage recipe on the ppk forum and loving it, I started thinking about what would happen if I did that method to a whole loaf of seitan. The results made for something that I could slice super thin for sandwiches, slice into chunks for skewers and stews, and crumbled pretty well in a food processor. I wasn't sure if I should blog this seeing as many of you probably make seitan pretty often, but then I thought about the people at work who ask me about the blobs of "seitan" we serve and are blown away that it could actually be good. I guess there are people out there who don't have a lot of guidance and this may help.So here is my play by play of me making seitan today and a recipe to follow.



I needed some seitan making music... I chose The Dirtys, who were from Port Huron, MI. My husband introduced them to me. Their only album, titled "You Should Be Sinnin'" was released on Germany's Crypt Records sometime in the late 90's and is one of my favorite CD's/records to listen to while I'm cooking as they played a great upbeat blend of fast aggressive freak-out rock & roll at an almost hardcore tempo. They are pretty much motivation for anything, not a band anymore but you should still check them out.http://www.myspace.com/thedirtysrock



dry mix


dry & wet mix


mix the two together


kneading


kneaded


on sprayed foil


ready for the oven


one hour later


please...I'm starving over here


Evidence of Matt picking at it when I wasn't looking. Between the dog and the husband at least half will get eaten before it gets into the fridge.


sliced

Seitan My Way
Dry Mix
1 Box Vital Wheat Gluten
1/2 cup Nutritional Yeast
1 tsp onion powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp Pepper

Wet Mix
1 1/2 cups Veggie Broth
1 tbs Granulated Garlic
1 tbs Tomato Paste
4 Drops Liquid Smoke
1 tbs Soy Sauce
2 tsp Worcestershire

-Preheat oven to 350
-Put dry mix together in a bowl and set aside
-Stir wet mix together until tomato paste isn't clumpy
-Pour wet mix into dry mix
Knead the mix with your hands until its a tough dough
- Form the loaf into a shape like the picture above (square shape?)
-Spray a piece of foil with a olive oil spray to prevent sticking and wrap the seitan really tight
- Cook for one hour and 15 minutes, flipping the loaf every 20 minutes. When you press on it and its no longer soggy but firm, its ready to go

Vegan MoFo #8 Tofu Sloppy Joes

Everyone has their own take and recipe for the sloppy joe. At work it's even called the sloppy Jim, based on a lovable guy who doesn't keep a very clean work space. This is one of my husbands favorite sandwiches. It's one of the first things I made for him when we started dating. The recipe has evolved quite a bit since then and instead of using tvp, I now use tofu. I can still hear the annoying song my younger sister would sing when my mom made these for us, every time I cook them.


Tofu Sloppy Joes
1/2 Block Extra Firm Tofu
1/4 Red Onion Diced
1/2 Green Pepper Diced
1/2 Rep Pepper Diced
4 Garlic Cloves
1/2 Can Tomato Paste
4 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1 tbs Chili Powder
2 tsp Smoked Paprika
2 tsp Sweetner of your choice
1 tbs Soy Sauce
Vegetable Broth

-Crumble tofu in a bowl and add tomato paste and stir until it's thoroughly mixed
-Saute onion & garlic till translucent
-Add peppers to the pan and add the soy sauce and saute till peppers are tender
-Add tofu/tomato paste mixture and cook on low heat and continue stirring so it doesn't stick to the pan
-Add remaining ingredients except veggie broth
-I use the broth at the end to give the mixture it's sloppiness. So that's your call as to how runny or firm you want the sandwich.

Now go make up your own sloppy joe song and get cooking!

Vegan MoFO #7 Two Sides No Dinner

So I'm sure everyone blogging this whole time has had a ton of leftovers in their refrigerators. We have too, so tonight we did leftovers and ate some sides I made a few days ago. The first one comes from a desire to use up leftover veggies & garbanzo beans I had. I love this recipe because you can really use whatever veggies you have lying around and because it's so versatile and can be a side dish for a number of entrees

Roasted Vegetable CousCous


1 Carrot diced
1/2 Zucchini diced
1/2 Squash diced
1/4 Red Pepper diced
2 Green Onions
3/4 can Garbanzo Beans
1 cup Israeli Couscous
4 Garlic Cloves
4 tsp Lemon Juice
4 tbs Olive Oil

-Preheat oven to 425
-Place all vegetables excepts green onion & garlic in a baking dish. Drizzle olive oil over then, season with salt & pepper and roast for about 20 minutes
-Bring pot of salted water to a rapid boil and throw in couscous
-When couscous is tender, strain and cool
-Saute green onion & garlic
-Combine roasted vegetables, couscous, garbanzos, and lemon juice
-This dish is usually better after it sits in the fridge for a while


This next dish came to me simply because I had a can of white beans in front of me and time to spare while the seitan patties I had in the oven were cooking. It really just came to me as a white bean/garbanzo bean dip and I wasn't sure where I was going with it but when it was done, I was really pleased. It has no oil in it so its super low in fat, but delicious.

White Bean Carrot Dip


1 cup White Beans
1/2 cup Garbanzo Beans
1 Carrot shredded
1 1/2 tbs Nutritional Yeast
1 1/2 tbs Lemon Juice
1 tbs Fresh Basil
1 tsp Oregano
2 tsp Garlic

-Place everything in a food processor and blend until smooth

Thanks for reading. I have the next two days off so expect some great things to come.

Vegan Mofo#6 Pizza Burger

Whenever Matt and I have a day off together we like to go on a little adventure to a different neighborhood. We both really like going to Wrigleyville/Boystown. There is a Reckless Records, a store that fills my shoe obsession, a cool bar with nice outdoor seating and has an indoor that is decorated to look like a older home's library. The last few times we have gone to the neighborhood, we have ended up at the Chicago Diner.


Years ago I really couldn't understand why anyone liked this place. My food was always pretty bland and I couldn't understand why it was always packed. We started giving it a second chance a little over a year ago. I began to appreciate their constantly changing menu, their specials, and the fact that they now serve a sugar free black cherry soda that turns out to be a perfect mixer to their Organic Rain Vodka. The last time we went they had their patio still open and re-vamped to be heated. We were the only ones out there and it made for a really cute romantic dinner. Matt usually just tells me to pick something for him since I know what he likes and I chose the pizza burger, which was one of their specials.


He absolutely loved it. Being always ready for a cooking challenge I inspected the texture & flavor & decided it wouldn't be long before he would be eating a better pizza burger at home.


Pizza Burger
For the Seitan Patties:
1 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp fennel
1 tbs fresh basil
1/2 tbs fresh rosemary
1/2 tbs fresh oregano
1/4 cup white beans
1 tbs tomato paste
2 cloves roasted garlic
2 1/2 cups vegetable broth

-Preheat oven to 375
-Combine all dry ingredients(first 6) in a bowl with salt & pepper and mix
-In a food processor combine white beans, tomato paste, and roasted garlic. Pulse until it is a smooth mixture adding a little veggie broth if you need to
-Put that mixture into your bowl of dry ingredients and add 1 cup of veggie broth to the mixture
-Knead the mixture for a couple of minutes until its a tough feeling dough
Cut the dough into 3 or 4 equal portions(depending on how big you want your patties) then form into patty shapes
-Put 1 1/2 cups veggie stock into the bottom of a baking dish with the patties on top and cover the dish with foil.
-Cook for 30 minutes, then flip the patties and cook for another 20 minutes uncovered.
-You can either use the patties as is or saute in a pan with olive oil for a crispier patty.
-Top with warm marinara & cheese( we used Daiya) and place in the broiler till cheese is melted

And now for my exciting weekend news:
I know this isn't food related but there is absolutely no way I couldn't blog about this. I have always wanted a painting of Riot done. While in Memphis in September for Goner Fest we ran into our friend Ben Lyon, who drew our wedding invitations and I mentioned to him that I would love for him to do a painting of Riot. I didn't know that Matt and Ben had been talking about this since then. Ben's sister was driving through Chicago Saturday night and dropped it off. Matt told me he had to run outside to drop off his band's rent money for their practice space. He really couldn't hide it anywhere in our house so he just gave it to me right then. I freaked out and was practically in tears. Ben is a great artist and you can check out most of his art here http://www.myspace.com/69917582/photos


That's it for tonight. I'll be back tomorrow. See you then!

Vegan Mofo #5 Chicken Chipotle Tortilla Soup

I'm usually pretty good about having dinner planned early in the day. So much so that my husband has called me crazy for calling him at 8:30 in the morning to spew off a list of dinner options for him to pick from. My excuse though, is I'm Italian and was brought up to always be thinking about food.
We are both on the broke side right now, so I wanted to make something that didn't require spending a lot or better yet, any money at all. After looking through our kitchen at what we had, I came up with a chicken tortilla soup. It turned out amazing. I reminded myself that sometimes the best recipes are created when you are forced to just use what you have. Here is a step by step of the process with a recipe to follow.


red pepper, garlic, green onion, and carrots


green onion and garlic cooking sauteing in olive oil with chili powder, cumin & smoked paprika



red peppers & carrots tossed in and sauteing



half a bag of trader joe's chicken-less strips ready to go in the pot along with the book I log recipes in



chicken and veggies all together


a random can of fire roasted tomatoes with chipotle peppers went in as well as a half a can of leftover black beans


whole wheat tortilla cut into strips


final product

Chicken Chipotle Tortilla Soup
4 garlic cloves
3 green onions + 1 for garnish
1/2 red pepper
1 carrot
1/2-1 bag trader joe's chicken-less strips chopped
1 can Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted Petite Diced Tomatoes With Chipotle Peppers
1/2 can black beans
1 1/3 cup veggie broth
3 tsp cumin
2 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp lime juice
1 tortilla

-Preheat oven to 325
-Saute garlic & green onion with one tsp of cumin, chili powder & smoked paprika
-When translucent add red peppers & carrots & continue to stir till tender
-Add chicken-less strips and a splash of lime and cook until chicken is browned on all sides
-Turn heat down and stir in the tomatoes,vegetable broth,black beans,the remaining spices & lime juice
- Let simmer on stove while making baked tortilla chips
- Slice tortilla into strips with a pizza cutter and sprinkle with salt and pepper and place on a cookie sheet
- Bake for 4 minutes then flip. They cook pretty quick so keep your eye on them
- Crush half and fold into hot soup and use the rest for garnish & dipping

Next time you MoFo's are broke, remember, there is always something you can throw together.

Vegan Mofo #4 Our Halloween Night

So obviously Halloween wasn't tonight but I did take a bunch of pictures knowing I would eventually blog about it. Matt and I are definitely not huge Halloween people. Neither one of us likes to dress up and we didn't really want to go to any parties or any bars. Instead, we decided to rent a few scary movies and carve pumpkins.


Riot is confused as to what the hell we are doing.


I used a huge serated knife which probably wasn't the best idea considering how many times I almost cut my fingers off.


Matt was already done with his pumpkin when I wasn't even half way done with mine.


Show off


As you can see neither of us have much artistic ability, but we had a lot of fun, which is the entire point, right? Right. I thought mine was going to look a lot cooler than it turned out.

Matt had mentioned to me that he loved roasting pumpkin seeds when he was a kid. His mom apparently used to roast them for him and his dad and it had been probably 20 years since he'd had them last. I had never done them before, but a quick google search told me to rinse the seeds, then throw them in a pot of boiling water.


Rinsed and ready for water


I wasn't entirely sure what to put on them so I just did sea salt, pepper, garlic, & soy sauce. They turned out to be so good and so addictive we finished them off in just a couple days and we munched on them during our scary movies that night instead of popcorn. I actually wish Riot would have carved a pumpkin with us so we could have eaten her seeds too as she did try eating up all of ours a number of times.

That's that. I know it's not much, but it was so much fun and even though so simple the seeds were great. That's it for now. See you tomorrow with an actual recipe, MoFo's.