MoFo #25: Curried Chickpea Balls

These are called Curried No-Meat Balls in Vegan Fire & Spice. I cooked my chickpeas in the slow cooker on low while I was at work today. Then, I chopped everything using the food processor. The recipe calls for mashing the chickpeas with a potato ricer, which seems impossible. Maybe she meant potato masher? I baked the balls instead of frying them in oil. I decided to bake them so I could prepare some rice in the rice cooker and let the sauce simmer on the stovetop. This is a very simple and incredibly flavorful meal. The spice mixture used in the sauce made the kitchen smell like an Indian restaurant, since I let the spices toast before adding the other ingredients. I used So Delicious plain Greek-style coconut yogurt for the vegan yogurt since I couldn't find a plain soy yogurt last weekend. Robin Robertson sure knows her stuff, as evidenced by the fact that Amazon lists this cookbook as the #1 best seller in low cholesterol cooking!

MoFo #24: Chloe's Stuffed Shells

I'm returning to Chloe's Kitchen finally! I'm enjoying using some of my other cookbooks during MoFo, but I was working my way through this book during September. I decided to make the stuffed shells. The tofu ricotta does not call for nutritional yeast, which was a change from the way I learned to make it in Vegan with a Vengeance. I pressed my tofu using my Tofu Xpress, instead of just draining it, so I made less shells than the recipe intended. The recipe also calls for 3 cups fresh basil, but I used some dried basil that my labmate made with his garden's excess basil. I usually include some spinach in shells, but I forgot to grab some at the store. The arrabbiata sauce was quite good, even with my extra pinch of red pepper flakes. Overall, these were very good, but I'd include some spinach and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast-based parmesan cheese next time. Please ignore how awful the lighting is in this photo...

MoFo #23: Pumpkin & Butternut Squash Stew

I decided to toil away peeling and dicing a little pie pumpkin and a butternut squash this weekend. Don't ask me why I'd find that an enjoyable way to spend an evening... This recipe is from Vegan Fire & Spice. The recipe calls for 2 lbs of pumpkin and the author's notes mention that other fall squashes could work. I decided to just get one pumpkin and one squash to use. I also used 4 jalapenos with the seeds, instead of 2 hotter chiles. I cooked my red beans in the slow cooker and then made this stew. It simmered on the stove while I did some dishes and other chores. I served this with some Trader Joe's crescent rolls. The rolls were hard to get out the tube, but they tasted fine with a sprinkle of garlic powder on them.

MoFo #22: Oven S'mores

Today, I achieved internet fame. It's true. It's all downhill from here... Probably not quite as exciting as Cristin earning her PhD today, but hey, I'll take what I can get in the excitement department these days. ;)

I was watching an episode of The Pioneer Woman on Food Network recently. Although she loves butter as much as (or more than) Paula Deen, I couldn't resist watching Ree Drummond's show. She was making kids' food, including s'mores for a camping trip. She mentioned that you can wrap the s'mores in foil and bake them in the oven if you weren't camping. I decided to give that a try this past weekend. I used Nabisco original graham crackers (no honey, but they do have hydrogenated oils), Sweet & Sara vegan marshmallows (vanilla flavor), and an Endangered Species dark chocolate bar with cacao nibs. Yum! The marshmallow got soft enough to squish and the chocolate melted. I waited a few minutes after taking them out of the oven, so I wouldn't burn myself on hot chocolate. The crackers were softer out of the oven than after I let them cool, so they were crisp when I bit into the s'more. Yum!

MoFo #21: Simplified Pain au Chocolat & Hot Cocoa

One of my favorite things to do on a Sunday morning is to make a hot breakfast. It's been a little cooler in the early mornings lately, so it was a perfect chance to make a hot breakfast. I defrosted some puff pastry, which I cut into strips and rolled out a little. I added a spoonful of Justin's dark chocolate hazelnut butter and folded the puff pastry over, sealing the edges with a fork. This nut butter is a low-sugar, vegan version of Nutella. I baked these according to the instructions on the pastry box. I decided to serve these with some hot cocoa. I have posted about hot cocoa before, but today I used some different ingredients. I recently bought Ah!laska non-dairy cocoa (the purple one shown on the website) and Dandie's vegan marshmallows. I heated some vanilla soy milk in the microwave, then stirred in the hot cocoa mix and topped it with the marshmallows. Dandie's are smaller than Sweet & Sara's marshmallows and they're air-puffed, so they have a texture similar to the non-vegan jumbo puffy marshmallows. Yum! What a quick, but satisfying, hot breakfast! I've also put vegan cream cheese and jam in puff pastry, but please be patient when they come out of the oven. A blob of hot jam burned my hand last weekend and it blistered!

MoFo #20: Pepper Tree in Houston, TX

Pepper Tree is an all-vegan Chinese restaurant. There's a buffet for $15, but you can also order a regular item off the menu too. The food is a little bland, but the camaraderie of the vegan social group was the reason I went. I got a quick photo of my first plate, but I was thoroughly enjoying the conversations by the time I got a second plate that I didn't even reach for my phone.

MoFo #19: Quesadillas with Upton's Seitan

Have you ever had Friday afternoon apathy? Once I got my Western blot running today, I felt like I just needed a nap. It happens sometimes. It's even worse than a normal Friday afternoon because I have to work tomorrow. I had a great stew recipe planned for tonight's dinner, but I forgot to start the beans this morning and had no desire to do prep work tonight. *sigh* Thankfully, I had a few things in my fridge that I could throw together for a quick dinner. (That's the upside of living in a city where I can find new vegan products!) I started with wheat tortillas, some Daiya cheese (both mozzarella and cheddar shreds), and Upton's Naturals Seitan in chorizo flavor. The seitan is the new item, since I have found Daiya cheeses in many different places in Florida. The chorizo flavor tasted perfect for tacos. I put the Daiya cheese and Upton's seitan on one half of my tortilla, then folded the other half over the top. I baked these for ~15 mins at 350*F, enough to melt the cheese and make the tortilla crispy. If I wasn't totally apathetic today, I would have served this with some type of vegetable on the side. I had some dark chocolate instead. :)