á Vegano’s take on Eeny Meeny Chili Beany On Toast from “Vegan á Go-Go!”

Tonight for dinner I made Eeny Meeny Chili Beany On Toast from Vegan á Go-Go! (originally from La Dolce Vegan I believe) but as usual I made my own changes and it is a bit different (different amount of items and included some items not in the recipe). The original can be found online if you do a search but I am not going to post it here.

 
1 15 oz can chili beans (including liquid)
1 15 oz can black beans (including liquid)
1 Tbsp Mexican chili powder
1 Tbsp Brown sugar
1 tsp Onion powder
1 tsp Garlic powder
1 tsp Pepper
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Cumin
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 Cup ketchup
1 Tbsp Tamari or soy sauce

Serve on toast, 2-2 1/2 pieces per person.

Put all ingredients (except the toast of course) into the pot and stir them together. Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat to let the chili simmer for about 10 minutes.

We like to rip our toast into small pieces and then cover it with the chili, but you can do yours however you like. I like to spread Earth Balance on my toast before I rip it apart.

 
From the back of the book:

This book includes recipes both new and adapted from her previous books; all are a cinch to prepare with easy-to-find ingredients but guaranteed to deliver energy, nutrition, and great flavor. The book also contains information and advice pertinent to Vegan travels, and is small enough to slip into one’s pocket or purse with ease. Full of Sarah’s high-energy with and verve, Vegan á Go-Go! makes life for Vegans on the go-go a lot less stressful and a lot more fun.

 

We highly suggest getting this book as it has a lot recipes that are quick and simple yet filling and delicious.

What Could Possibly be Better Than Vegan Gourmet EnglishToffee?

Vegan Gourmet Merikan Toffee that’s what. No,but seriously, FREE Vegan Gourmet English Toffee is better!

I (rahzh) entered a little contest that @foodoro tweeted on Twitter which was actually being held on their Facebook page for a prize on their website (confusing I know but try to keep up because it is worth it). The first two people to guess what the Mystery Item was had the choice of Vegan Gourmet English Toffee or Vegan Gourmet Coconut Brittle. The toffee is made by Chocolate Inspirations, INC and you can find several other delicious looking Vegan options on their site as well. I chose the toffee because chocolate covered toffee is one of my most favorite things ever. I used to love Heath and Skorr bars. And I am pretty sure I haven’t had any toffee (chocolate covered or uncovered) since becoming Vegan almost exactly four years ago. If I have had it I do not remember, that is for sure.

The toffee and the brittle come in a bulk 1 pound bag or a 1/2 pound gold tent box.

They are $15.00 and $20.50 respectively. The 1 pound bag is a much better buy at about $1.29 per ounce compared to the 1/2 pound which is around $1.86 per ounce. The toffee is crunchy and nomilicious while the Swiss dark chocolate couverture covering is rich and smooth. The chopped pecan topping is just the right amount making this dessert all around delectable. The toffee and brittle are just two of the many Vegan products Foodoro carries and if the rest are even half as good as the toffee then they are worth trying.

As of this post Foodro has 278 Vegan items, but be careful as they do have a lot of non-Vegan items and I do not recommend those as the animals would not appreciate it . Just make sure to search the term Vegan and you shouldn’t have any worries.

*Edit*

*Foodoro now has a Vegan Shopping Guide that can break items down into multiple categories based on price, craft, health&nutrition, foodmaker,etc.*

Finally,here is what you have been waiting for, the toffee and all its glory.

Healthy Can = Yummmmmmy

Cookies are yummy, we all know that. If the cookies are yummy and actually healthy, well, it just doesn’t get better than that! We decided to try this recipe that was featured on Vegetarian Vixens blog because it looked way too good to pass up. While petsitting for the adorable Molly, we took full advantage of her fully loaded kitchen to get our bake on. These beauties were soft, chewy, a little more oatmealy than we thought they’d be, but oh so vair delish!

And here’s how you can have them, too!

The Heart-Healthiest Chocolate Chip Cookies in the World

• 2 cups walnuts
• 3 T canola oil
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 2 t vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups oat flour
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t salt
• 1/4 t ground cinnamon
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips (or 10 1/2 ounces vegan bittersweet chocolate, chopped)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 2 baking sheets with cooking spray, or line with parchment paper.
2. Blend walnuts in food processor 30 seconds, or until ground into a fine meal. Add canola oil in a stream with the food processor running, and blend for 2 – 3 minutes more, or until mixture has the consistency of natural peanut butter, scraping down the sides of the food processor occasionally. Transfer to a bowl.
3. Whisk together brown sugar and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan, and bring mixture to a boil. (Watch this, as when it starts to boil it can quickly boil over.) Pour brown sugar mixture over the ground walnut butter, add vanilla extract, and stir until no lumps remain.
4. Whisk together oat flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a separate bowl. Stir oat flour mixture into walnut mixture. Cool 10 minutes. Fold in oats, then chocolate chips.
5. Shape cookie dough into 1 1/2 to 2 inch balls (I used a spring-type ice cream scoop, and I used 2 different sizes, varying the baking time), and place two inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Now the original recipe calls for flattening the cookies with a glass dipped in water. I forgot with the first batch that went into the oven, and they turned out just fine with a lovely cracked top to the cookie. They did take a little longer than the recipe called for when I made them this way.
6. Bake 8-10 minutes, or until cookies begin to brown and tops look dry. Cool three minutes on baking sheets, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
7. Enjoy with a tall glass of rice or soy milk!

So satisfy that sweet tooth of yours and don’t worry about feeling guilty one bit. NOM.

Weekend of Fire – Cincinnati Style

We apologize for being so remiss. Life has thrown us a curve ball (we won’t bore you with details) and that’s monopolized most of our time over the past couple weeks. So without further ado, let’s get on with things, shall we?

This past weekend we found ourselves just outside of Cincinnati, Ohio visiting my brother, David. Jungle Jim’s was hosting their second annual Weekend of Fire, and with Papo Delgado in town for the weekend, too, it was a no-brainer that’s where we’d be spending the afternoon.

Hot sauces, salsas, hot jams, jellies, rubs – this event had it ALL!

Papo Delgado bought us all a round of Coronas and the tastings began!

Naturally, we are reading all labels to ensure Vegan goodness, so we were extra pleased to see this booth:

And even with all the options, Woz loves her Cholula!

Woz and Papo didn’t attempt this:

Dave and Rahzh, however, did. Keep in mind that Dave loves hot sauce and most are no big deal to him. Yet these were the results:

Time to cool off with Jimmy’s Italian Ice that nicely sported a nice NO DAIRY sign:

We made one more round (and all had one more beer!) and finalized our purchases. Dave carried out the loot:

So of course a chili was beggin’ to be made after that!

Weekend of Fire Chili

1 Cup Tomato Juice

3 Cans of Chili Beans
1 Can of Kidney Beans
1 28 oz. Can of Diced Tomotoes
2 Jars of Spaghetti Sauce
1 Package of Chili Seasoning
1 Cup Sliced Mushrooms
1 Celery Stalk
2 1/2 Cups TVP
Pepper, Cumin, and Garlic to taste
Hot Sauce to taste and tortilla chips as garnish

In large pot, add 2 cups water and 1 cup tomato juice. Bring to a boil and add pepper, cumin, and garlic. Next add TVP and continue to boil until all liquid cooks off. Drain kidney beans and add to pot. Add all remaining ingredients to pot. Heat to desired temperature and serve.

This makes A TON so invite folks over or be ready for lots of leftovers. NOM.

To Have and To Hold One’s Own Calzone

Calzones have been a favorite of mine since college. I loved ordering up my very own little piece of yummy for a number of reasons. 1) It was cheaper than ordering a whole pie. 2) It was the perfect amount of food after getting home at 2 a.m. when the bars closed. and 3) It was in one cute little package that prevented broke roommates from hovering around and sneaking “just one slice”. Yes, the calzone was perfection to me.

Since going vegan I hadn’t really thought about my beloved calzones too often. Mainly because places didn’t offer a vegan calzone (yes, I know, hold the cheese and there you have it) but it seemed more worth our time perfecting pizza like this instead. I seemed to be just happy in my little calzone-less world…until we moved to Upstate New York about a month ago.

We live just west of Ithaca and people kept telling us about Pizza Aroma and their amazing vegan calzones. Outside of Eugene’s own Pizza Research Institute’s P3 pizza, (which Rahzh blogged about for his veganniversary), I haven’t been all the impressed with the vegan pizzas that are being made out there so really didn’t go running at the first whisper of calzone. I was indeed quite skeptical.

Pizza Aroma is definitely a no frills pizza-on-the-go sort of joint but don’t let that fool you. What was served up for us was a made to order, hot and fresh, honest to goodness, yummy yum yum, worth getting in the car and driving a half hour (40 minutes with a damn detour) for vegan calzone. Made with black olives, spinach, roasted red peppers, eggplant, fresh garlic (ooo the garlic!), roasted garlic sauce, olive oil and Follow Your Heart mozzarella cheese. This, my friends, is something to have and to hold, behold:

And the bonus was they were HUGE! We each ordered one and while Rahzh was so excited and rallied through eating a whole calzone, we could have easily shared one. Mine made for a really great second lunch later in the day. The only critique we had of this dish was that the cheese could have been melted just a little more but outside of that it is definitely worth the hype. NOM.

Chocolate Upside-Down Pudding Cake

Our copy of Vegan A Go-Go! is already getting some chocolate fingerprints on it from making this yummy recipe. Just being introduced to this super easy and super yummy lava cake of sorts was worth the price of admission alone!

What was almost as fun as eating this dessert was baking it in our latest yard sale find. We found this happy little toaster oven over the weekend for only $2. We were so pleased because we’ve gotten so tired of cranking up the entire oven when a little guy like this could easily do the trick! We also love that we don’t have to keep opening the oven door to see how something is doing since ours in a model with no window. Toastie has solved that problem and happily baked her first Chocolate Upside-Down Pudding Cake!

Smelled sooooo good baking!

Add a side of any vegan ice cream (our choice for the evening was So Delicious Neapolitan).

Very happy tummies! NOM.

Fabulous falafel gyro with titillating tahini sauce

Falafel is one of our most favorite foods EVER. Especially for rahzh (he could probably eat it all day,every day). Sad thing is we both just discovered falafel a couple of years back (or less). Neither of us ever tried it before we went Vegan. And it is sad to think we missed out on years of fabulous falafel gyros Luckily Woz discovered this food of the Middle Eastern gods and introduced it to rahzh’s unsuspecting and unknowing mouth during one of his early visits.

 

As you all know we moved from Eugene to Watkins Glenn (West of Ithaca),but we would still like to promote our favorite falafel places back in Eugene (we have mentioned them before). Mommy’s Falafel has some of the most delicious falafel we ever tried. Once we found them we rarely ever went anywhere else unless they were closed or to try a new place. Alexander’s Great Falafel is a little different,but just as good (Mommy’s had the added benefit of having seasoned fries). Alexander’s is also a completely Vegan cart. We shall miss them both and look forward to finding somewhere here with delicious falafel (even if only in Ithaca).

 

These gyros are nommers ( We swear that it’s a word. Go and look it up if you don’t believe us )and only take 5-10 minutes to prepare and about 20 minutes to cook. So in 30 minutes or less you will have magically delicious falafel err… wait a second this is a Middle Eastern food not Irish. As always we will continue to personalize the recipe as we continue to make it (after a certain point we usually start eye balling many of the ingredients). As for now this is the recipe that we followed.

 

To make the falafel you will need:

15-19 oz can chickpeas/garbanzo beans,drained (you could also soak your own)
1/2 medium white onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoon parsley, chopped
2-3 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 teaspoon cumin
3/4 teaspoon baking powder ( 1/2tsp + 1/4tsp or 3x 1/4 tsp)
salt & pepper
2-3 tablespoons olive oil (you could try another type if you wish)

Start by preheating the oven to 350 and drizzling the oil evenly in a shallow baking pan (we used a small glass baking pan/casserole dish).

Next, mash the chickpeas/garbanzo beans. You may use a mortar and pestle or a food processor but we have neither. So we used a spoon, potato masher, and our blender. This way requires more work and depending on your blender it might mean doing it in a couple of batches to make sure the chunks of chickpeas/garbanzo beans are gone.

Add onions and garlic and blend some more.

Mix in the rest of the ingredients and you should get a thick paste-like consistency. Spoon out the mixture and roll (using your hands) into walnut size balls and place in preheated baking dish. Flatten the falafel a little. Bake for 15-20 minutes, flip the falafel halfway through baking.

 

To make the tahini sauce you will need:

1/2 cup tahini (sesame seed paste)
4 gloves garlic, minced
3/4 teaspoon salt ( 1/2tsp + 1/4tsp or 3x 1/4 tsp)
2 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoon parsley, finely chopped
2 teaspoon cilantro, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 tablespoon warm water

You may use food processor or mortar and pestle to combine garlic and tahini but we just used our blender. Then add salt, parsley, cilantro, and cumin to the mixture. Next, add olive oil, lemon juice, and water. If the mixture is too thick slowly add more warm water until you get the thickness that you like.

 

Now all you have to do is take your favorite pita bread and top it with your favorite toppings ( greens/tomatoes/onions/etc) add the falafel and tahini sauce. AND don’t forget to add some hot sauce. That puts it over the top. We love Cholula hot sauce (especially the garlic version). And voila!

If you like the recipe please go vote for it at at CHOW.com. We submitted as a recipe to be part of the site,but right now there is a contest going on and we submitted it for that as well. Thanks

“Tasty tofu lettuce wraps” or “Move over P.F. Chang’s”

We decided to try making lettuce wraps because of repeatedly having this wonderful concoction at P.F. Chang’s.

When we go to P.F. Chang’s we never actually order any entrées and just stick to the “starters”. And for the most part we only get the lettuce wraps. We both get ourselves an order of the vegetarian lettuce wraps and sometimes we get some rice to go along with it. We make a meal out of what P.F. Chang’s considers to be an appetizer. For us it has all a meal needs; lettuce, tofu, mushrooms, water chestnuts, and some sauces and spices.

To us these taste better than the wraps at P.F. Chang’s. So good in fact that we not only had them for dinner but we also had them the next morning for breakfast/brunch

cooked rice (amount and type is up to you,but we suggest around 4 servings)
head of lettuce
1 pound extra firm tofu, sometimes we even do 1 1/2 pounds if we have the extra tofu (drained)
2 3/4 cups chopped mushrooms (your choice,but preferably shitake)
4 tablespoons chopped garlic (fresh)
2 tablespoons chopped ginger (fresh)
4 oz chopped water chestnuts (drained)
red pepper flakes
soy sauce
pepper
onion powder
Earth Balance (or Vegan margarine/oil of choice)

Chop your the tofu into tiny squares. Then spread out the tofu on pan/cookie sheet ( We like to VERY lightly oil/”butter” the pan with EB so that the tofu doesn’t stick). Top with pepper, red pepper flakes, and soy sauce (to taste for the most part,but don’t over do it). Also top with just a little bit of onion powder. Bake on 375 degrees for about 35-40 minutes.

At this time you can also start cooking the rice. Follow the brand/package directions for the amount of rice you are wanting.

When the tofu is almost done, melt some EB in a wok or frying pan and throw in the chopped up garlic and ginger. Saute for around 5 minutes or so until they are softer. Add in the mushrooms. At this time you can add soy sauce, usually about 4 shakes (depending on your palette). Also if you want to at this point it would be a good time to add some more pepper, pepper flakes, and/or onion powder.

Cook for about another 10 minutes or so [add the water chestnuts at this point], then add the tofu to the wok or frying pan and finish up the cooking – not long, just around 3 minutes.

Wash and dry the lettuce and pull off pieces about the size of your palm (some times we are bad and skip this step, but usually because it is organic lettuce).

Spoon the mixture and some rice onto the lettuce and roll it up and enjoy these tasty tofu lettuce wraps.

Chicken Parmesan and Spaghetti sans the Chicken and Parmesan

So there haven’t been any posts in about a month, but we have been trying new things and Rahzh is keeping up with his S’more New Year goal of trying new foods! We haven’t forgotten the blog, just many things were/are going on all at once. We have at least 7 new foods to post (and some other things as well) about and would we have more, but sometimes we forget to take the camera. We get so excited about actually eating the food to remember the camera. Can you blame us?

Today we bring you Chicken Parmesan with Spaghetti minus the actual chicken and parmesan. This one didn’t require any recipe. It was the first time we have had it since being Vegan and believe one of the few (possibly only) times Rahzh had this tasty Italian dish. It was just combining some pre-made foods, but oh was it delicious.

We made spaghetti with some Newman’s Own sauce along with a Gardenburger Herb Crusted Cutlet covered with a slice of Tofutti Mozzarella and dinner was served.

About two weeks late, but Happy S’more New Year!

This is what we had for our second S’more New Year together. We couldn’t have a S’more New Year without S’mores!!! We used Ricemilk Choco Bar, Sweet & Sarah coconut covered marshmallows, and a generic brand of chocolate covered graham crackers (we had trouble finding plain Vegan graham crackers). A a couple of days ago we found Healthy Valley grahams (they aren’t with the other graham crackers and the text that says “graham crackers” is pretty small) and decided to go with the oat bran variety.

I could end this post right here and it would be relevant to our blog and you would have a picture of delicious S’mores, but this wasn’t the real reason I am posting. The real reason I am posting is to explain what I have decided to do for SNY.

I have decided that I will try to have a new food experience at least once a week. Mainly, I want to try ATLEAST a new recipe each week,but that is not the only thing and it doesn’t have to be limited to just one experience a week. Experiences such as trying a new fruit or vegetable, a new spice, a variation on an old recipe, a new cookbook, a new restaurant, a new processed food, a new combination of foods, or even a new spot for eating ( a chair, a bed, the floor, inside, outside,etc) are all fair game (wait a sec… is that even Vegan? ). And to start off this year of new food experiences I got Veganomicon.

What all this of this means for you is more posts, more pictures, more info, more stories, and more recipes. So really what it means is more awesomeness than before (which is pretty hard to imagine)!

Woz’s S’more post explains what S’more New Year is and what she is doing, or should I say not doing, for S’more New Year.