If you're playing Friends trivia, it's Joey's favorite food...

Sandwiches!

Everything tastes better toasted.

Pepperoni Pizza Toasty

2 slices of bread
3-4 slices of Vegan cheese
2 slices Vegan turkey
8 slices Vegan pepperoni 
Vegenaise
Tomato sauce

I know you don't really need a recipe for a sandwich, right?  I used the Cuisinart Griddler panini press to make it toasty.  I have the original version of this gadget, and it's quite multi functional for a small apartment.  

Spread the vegenaise on the bread, spread tomato sauce over that.  Add a layer of cheese, turkey, pepperoni and cheese (so you have cheese net to the bread on both pieces.)  Then place on preheated griddle and toast to toasty perfection.  Put at an angle, then shift 90 degrees to get cool hash marks. Sometimes I spray with non-stick canola spray and sometimes I don't, it really comes out the same.

Yum...

Doomsday Prepper or Miss Minimalist? and some Rye Bread...

So I'm cleaning out a closet trying to balance being a Doomsday Prepper  and a Minimalist.  I've clearly been watching too much Nat Geo and reading too many feng shui e-books...   

Doomsday Prepper Minimalist food supply:  Dried beans; check.  Rice; check.  Water; enough for a few days and stuff that will hopefully purify the Hudson River; check.  Lots of things to flavor the beans & rice; check.  Yeah, I guess I can live off that for awhile if the *bleep* hits the fan.  The ninja wants weapons.  I'll take care of the food.  I don't plan on eating squirrel.

Next step is to redo the Vegan Unplugged pantry supply box.  My brilliant idea to keep it fresh is to donate the whole thing for the holiday food drive (complete with a can opener and a copy of Vegan Unplugged) and then replenish annually.  Good thing we didn't get a blizzard this year, since I've been without the supply box for 2 months.  I had lots of fun with this during hurricane Irene last August even though we didn't even lose power.    

Now onto the rye bread.  A bread machine embodies the opposite of a both a doomsday prepper and minimalist, but I do love this darn thing.  I've had it for at least 12 years, and lost the manual ages ago, but I just found it online (yay!) and was inspired to make the rye bread with rye flour from King Arthur Flour that has been languishing in the pantry.      

Nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread in the morning...toasts nicely.   

Ghost Peppers & Gardein Soft Tacos

My cousin sent me some ghost peppers fresh from his plants in LA.  This fiery monster's official name is Bhut Jolokia and it is touted to be the world's hottest pepper.

I sauteed up a small one with the Gardein, and although it has a nice smooth pungent spicy smoky flavor, I ate a whole one in the burrito without even breaking a sweat.  Good blend of heat with flavor, but I don't think it's the hottest pepper I've had.  I did take out the seeds and spines, which probably helped.

Gardein cutlets, avocado, tomato, ghost pepper, Daiya cheddar and, Vegan Gourmet sour cream.

Think it's a Superbowl snack?  Heck no.  I'm watching Gosford Park, then Downton Abbey on PBS.

Gardein Crispy Tenders

If you're on Facebook you can hardly miss someone posting the the photos of the mysterious pink mechanically separated meat. If you want all the fun without all the grossness, check out Gardein's Crispy tenders.  It's been awhile since I've had an actual McNugget, but these make a pretty good substitute.  Mmm bbq sauce...

  

I'm working my way through trying all the Gardein varieties.  I've found them frequently at regular grocery stores, but you can find them at Whole Foods as well.  There are some varieties in the fridge section and some in the freezer.  Also may randomly appear in the fresh fruit and veggie section.

Westchester Vegan Eat-Up at Haven in Pleasantville

Awesome blogger JL Goes Vegan hosted our local Veg*an Eat-Up meet-up event at Haven in Pleasantville, NY.  Vegan friendly American cuisine focusing on fresh, organic, market driven foods.  There are several vegan dishes on the menu at all times so between the Ninja and I we ordered them all.

First up was butternut squash soup  

Then a nice mixed greens salad (I confess this photo is JL's)

Crispy chickpea fries with a spiced black cherry cream.  This sauce was delicious.

Chef made cauliflower broccoli squash ravioli just for our vegan group.  The Ninja really enjoyed this and didn't really miss the non-vegan item he wanted to order...

 I had the soba noodles with white bean meatballs.

Dessert was a super delish dairy free chocolate cake with raspberry sauce.  Yum!

JL got a pic of the whole group.

Totally fun night meeting new people and eating awesome vegan food.

Cheers!

New Year's Rancheros

Resolutions schmesolutions.  Blog worthy or no, I'm bringing in 2012 with an old classic.  Scramble rancheros.  Tortillas, a little salsa, a little tofu, and voila breakfast of campeones.  Fresh salsa makes it super awesome, and I just wouldn't be me if there wasn't a little chipotle vegenaise on the side.

Happy New Year's ya'll.

 

Super easy meaty weeknight ziti

Sometimes I wonder why anyone bothers writing pasta recipes since it's so easy just to throw stuff in that you've got in the cupboard, freezer, and fridge.  Here's an easy weeknight pasta recipe anyway.

Beefy 'shroomy ziti - serves one with enough leftovers for lunch tomorrow

1/4 bag/box pasta or whatever you've got open in the cabinet 

1 totally freezer burned vegan veggie burger

Hand full of frozen mushrooms covered in frost that you saved from the summer farmer's market/CSA

Any remaining wine from wine glass from the day before when you fell asleep watching TV

Sprinkle italian herbs/garlic

2-3 big dashes of Tobasco

Any remaining Ragu or similarly jarred spaghetti sauce you find near the back of the fridge

Cook pasta.  Saute everything else together in pan and add pasta when done, then let cook another 5 minutes to absorb the sauce. 

Seriously and I wonder why I neglect the blog.  Clearly I need to cook more interesting stuff.  Me thinks it's time to make some vegan cupcakes...look out!