Original Recipe: Nearly-Instant Taco Wrap

So, this is a really basic, simple recipe. I'm pretty sure a 5-year-old could make it without even making that much of a mess. I don't know why, but I've been craving tacos a lot recently. And so I make them. And I keep on wanting them. Does that mean they're my favorite food? I don't even know. Maybe it's because these are actually pretty good for you, and they're so ridiculously filling. I make them gluten-free and vegan, (obviously,) and they're super-easy to make free of whatever else you need it to be free of. They could be a snack, or a meal. That all depends on how hungry you are, and how much you make.

What you will need:

soft tortillas
vegan taco filling (as in fake meat)
vegan sour cream
vegan cheese
fresh spinach

What I use:

Food for Life (Ezekiel Bread) Brown Rice Tortillas

Tofurkey Chorizo Grounds

Tofutti sour cream

Daiya Cheddar Shreds

And spinach. 

What to do:

Place a tortilla on a microwave-safe plate. Spread desired amount of vegan cheese out over one side of the tortilla. Add desired amount of taco filling in a column on the center of the tortilla, leaving about 1.5 inches of space from the end on one side. Microwave for 30 seconds to a minute. Add desired amount of spinach on top of the column of taco filling. Add desired amount of sour cream to the column as well. Fold the end with space up and the sides in so that you can eat it with your hands. Enjoy!

Here's what mine looked like:

Words. Cannot. Describe. (And I will proceed at an attempt at verbal description anyway.) This is really super-amazing. I still don't know if it counts as a recipe. . . Because You aren't really COOKING anything. . . Whatever. This counts. So good. I said it was pretty good for you at the beginning of my post. It is. veggie crumbles / taco filling has a TON of protein. Fake cheese also has lots of protein. I'm pretty sure even vegan sour cream has a decent amount of protein. And let's face it, as delicious as iceberg lettuce is, spinach has way more goodness in it, like iron, calcium, antioxidants, etc. 

I'd love to see pictures of your own taco wraps! If you made these, let me know how it went! What did you think? Did you like it? Is it your new favorite thing? Did you make any awesome changes? Hit me up! Leave a comment. Can't wait to hear how things went!

Food Finds Friday: Chocolate Edition

As I've mentioned recently, I've found some pretty impressive things in grocery stores recently. REALLY impressive. For any chocolate lovers out there, (this should be just about everyone in existence,) I've found some absolutely DELICIOUS ready-made chocolatey desserts. (Are you drooling yet?) I'm going to be sharing 2 items that are both gluten-free, and vegan. Both can be found for sure at Whole Foods, and probably several other health food stores. Are you ready?

Set?

LET'S GO!

1. Zen Pudding



This pudding if so rich, you'll forget you're a poor college student. Or maybe that's just me. This stuff is really great though. I totally enjoyed it. I had to make myself ration it out, or I would have eaten the whole pack of four in one sitting. They have several flavors, including chocolate, vanilla, chocolate and vanilla, and chocolate almond milk (depicted above.) It is a tiny bit more on the expensive side though. While I really enjoyed it, I probably won't buy it often, especially when there are several Vegan College Cookbook recipes for chocolate pudding, such as Break-Up Pudding! If you make the pudding yourself, there's more to go around. So, my final verdict is: it tastes great, but the price is not right.

2. The Piping Gourmets Whoopie Pies

For the love of everything beautiful in this world, thank you for existing. So far, I've been able to try the first 3 flavors from the left. Let me tell you: they are amazing. If I had to choose between being rich and famous and having a lifetime supply of these, it would be a pretty tough toss-up. They come frozen, and personally, I think they taste best thawed, but they taste fine frozen too if you really cannot wait. If you're cooking dinner though, and you get one out to thaw while you're cooking, it'll be ready for dessert. These are so rich, and so yummy. It's very difficult to describe them with words. If you spoke whoopie pie, I'd get one out and roll it around on the keyboard so you'd know. . . These taste perfectly real, except for that they're so good, it's unreal. They don't have that I'm-an-allergen-free-version-of-a-delicious-food taste to them. I have no idea how to make something this delicious! I'm perfectly happy to buy them. I think this is love. Final verdict: Oh, kale yeah.

Alright, well I'm going to wrap this post up now, because I want to go eat another whoopie pie after talking about them so much. I hope these product reviews were helpful! If you have any products to suggest for review, leave a comment saying what I should try!

chocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolate

CTTVCC: Ants on a Blog

This delicious snack is one I've enjoyed since childhood. Eating this again brings back memories of my nana making these for me when I was knee high to a grasshopper. (Pardon the funny expression. I don't really ever use it but it makes me laugh because it makes me think of cute little old ladies in the South.) My nana always cut the celery smaller so that it was more kid-friendly. I used to get these when coming home from dance lessons. Ah. . . Memories.

The recipe calls for:

• 2 stalks celery, cut into sticks
• 1 box raisins
• 4 tablespoons peanut butter

Here's what mine looked like:

The only thing I changed about this recipe was using dried cranberries instead of dried grapes. I mean, I did also use the sugar-free kind, just to be a little healthier, but whatever. For those who may have peanut allergies, or just want to try mixing this up a bit, you could use crunchy peanut butter instead of smooth, or any kind of nut or seed butter that you wanted. My favorite non-peanut butter is sunflower seed butter. Let me tell you, it is amazing. (I have also heard good things about pumpkin seed butter, but I haven't had the opportunity to try it yet. I might end up having to make some myself next fall after carving jack-o-lanterns.) Anyway, this is a super-simple, super-satisfying recipe that's great for snacking on without getting your hands that messy. Enjoy!

(Vegan) Cream Cheese Comparisons

A thousand apologies everyone, for somewhat vanishing this past semester. College is a lot busier than I expected it to be. Being an art student, I don't have the luxury of plain and simple homework that you just have to get done. Art homework, such as sketches, and also in my case, apparel construction (sewing), takes a long time. I just didn't have a lot of time to blog. I probably would have died of never sleeping if I had. Anyway, I'm going to try to post a lot over the break, and get more posts ready to post during next semester. Today I am not blogging about a TVCC recipe, but instead offering a bit of insight for choosing between brands of vegan cream cheese, as the title suggests.

Seeing as a lot of holiday recipes call for cream cheese, like dips, or cheese balls, or cheese cake, or marble brownies, or cheese danish, etc. and presumably, my wonderful readers might want to veganize their classic recipes, I would like to offer you a bit of insight as to what brands to choose for what. Here are my top 3 favorites.

#3: Go Veggie!

This cream cheese is a good one for recipes. The taste is just fine. There is just something off about the texture. It doesn't have the real cream cheese feel to it. The texture is what gives it away as fake. If you can get over the weirdness about the texture, then feel free to enjoy it spread on whatever you like, but I just would only use it for cooking or baking recipes where the texture gets lost in the other ingredients.

I must say though, I can totally get over the texture to put the strawberry cream cheese on gluten-free, vegan English muffins. I know strawberry-flavored stuff doesn't really taste like strawberries, but I'm a sucker for it anyway.

#2: Daiya

 

Alright, so I haven't tried the strawberry version of this stuff yet. That is on my list of things-to-do. However, as far as the plain goes, it's pretty good. The texture, while not 100% perfect, is at least MUCH better than Go Veggie's. The taste is also pretty good, though I find it a little on the salty side. It tastes like they used the same base as they use for their vegan cheeses. So basically, it tastes a little bit like a cheese spread and not cream cheese. Really though, it isn't bad. The flavor is really growing on me. I think it is best in recipes that are more savory. I haven't tried it in any dessert recipes, but again, it is  more on the salty side, and I'm afraid of a recipe not turning out right because of that. But I'm sure it would be great for holiday dips and spreads, cheese balls, etc. It would also taste pretty good in vegan sushi, or roll-up and wrap sandwiches.

#1: Tofutti

 

I gotta say, this stuff is still my ultimate favorite. It gets the flavor extremely well, and the texture is PERFECT. It is great plain, or in whatever kind of recipes you want to use it in. It also tastes great with cinnamon-sugar on toast by the way. If you've never tried it, you need to. This is my go-to for vegan cheesecake too. OMG. That is amazing. (Last year I posted about vegan eggnog cheesecake that I'd made with this stuff. Check it out!) I really really really love this brand. For example, in high school economics class, we had a project in which we had a fake budget and spent our fake money on stocks and managed a stock profile and stuff, and this was a company that I kept on my stock profile. By the way, if anyone is looking to buy stocks in vegan food companies, Tofutti's stocks tend to be pretty steady. They don't always grow that much, but you at least won't likely lose a lot of money. (That tip was free, by the way.) And who knows, if everyone starts using this amazing stuff more often, maybe it will grow in stock value. Whatever. The only thing that isn't amazing about this stuff is the package design. I think that the package looks a little bit outdated based on the colors and design scheme, but hey. Don't judge by outward appearances right? The package doesn't make it taste any less amazing. 

Okay. I hope that was helpful to everyone! If you make any recipes with vegan cream cheese, I'd love to hear your thoughts and see your pictures! Who knows, maybe if I like your stuff, I'll feature you! I'd love to do some features on this blog, so go ahead and impress me. I love vegan cream cheese recipes. Good luck everybody, and Happy Christmas!

Veggie Grab Bag

One of my local organic, small-business grocery/diners regularly has coupons for half off of a giant grab bag of in-season locally grown veggies. I got one and had a lot of fun cooking and eating them. What I did for most of the root vegetables was to make bakes (not fries) out of them. It's super-easy.

What you need:

• Assortment of your favorite root vegetables (carrots, potatoes, rutabaga, beets, etc.)
• olive oil
• your favorite blend of spices (I recommend salt, pepper, Rosemary, cumin, red pepper, Italian seasoning.) ( Note: For veggies like sweet potatoes or beets, I like putting cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar on then instead.)
• large mixing bowl
• baking sheet

What to do:

• preheat oven to 350°
• peel and chop your vegetables into small sticks or chips (depending on the natural shape of the vegetable.)
• place the chopped veggies in the bowl and drizzle a sparing amount of olive oil on the vegetables. Toss or stir the vegetables until all are lightly coated in olive oil.
• add your spices to the bowl, and toss or stir until all veggies until the spices are relatively evenly distributed.
• place veggies on the baking sheet in a single later (you might have to bake in multiple batches.)
• place baking sherry in oven and cook for approximately 10 minutes or until veggies begin to crisp.
• allow veggies to cool enough that you won't burn your mouth of when you bite into them.
• enjoy! 

CTTVCC: Hangover Helper

Turn to page 38. Alright everyone. Let me just start off by saying that this is a phenomenal recipe. I may have mentioned before that I have never been a big fan of mayonnaise in the past. However, it made this breakfast sandwich taste super-delicious! In fact, probably because of this very recipe, I am beginning to really like the stuff. Really. I love the way that the taste of the veganaise combines with the flavor of the cheese. It is probably one of my favorite breakfast recipes I've made so far. Breakfast is my absolute favorite meal of the day. In fact, I'd probably be perfectly content to pretty much just eat breakfast food for the rest of ever. I mean, really. I'ts all kinds of delicious.

The recipe calls for:

• 2 tablespoons vegan mayonnaise
• salt, pepper, and onion powder, to taste
• 8 vegan chicken strips, thawed
• 2 slices vegan cheese
• 1 bagel, sliced in half

I used Follow Your Heart Original Veganaise for this recipe. I wanted to get the reduced fat stuff, but I didn't want that to maybe interfere with the flavor the first time I tried this recipe, as diet foods often do. 

I chose Beyond Meat lightly seasoned chicken-free strips because they are gluten-free and vegan. They also have one of the most convincing meat textures I've ever come across in fake meat. 

Any flavor of vegan cheese would probably work fine, and you don't have to get the pre-sliced stuff, but I chose Daiya Cheddar Slices. Admittedly, slices are a bit easier to work with.

I also have yet to find gluten-free, vegan bagels, so I again used English muffins instead. I used Food For Life brown rice English muffins, which are very yummy, just in case you were wondering. Also, one advantage of English muffins over bagels, is that you don't have food falling through the hole in the middle.

Here is what my finished sandwich looked like: 

This was super-yummy, and I will definitely be making this again. It's packed with protein and yummy veganness so I'm sure it would be great for making sure you can kick start your day with energy. It's also not the messiest thing out there, so you can eat it while you're getting ready in the morning. I seriously want another one of these RIGHT NOW. I'm sure you'll be as impressed with them as I was. This is definitely on my go-to recipes list. You know, to be honest, this would make a good power-snack, or lunch or even a light dinner. EAT IT FOR ALL THE MEALS! Enjoy!

CTTVCC: Bunny Butter Spread

Page 77 is where you'll find a little white rabbit who is terribly late for an important date, and decides he needs to snag this snack before rushing off to meet the Queen of Hearts. Okay, not really, but it is where you'll find the recipe for Bunny Butter Spread. This spread makes a delicious snack that I could eat forever. I'm glad this makes a limited amount.

The recipe calls for:

• 1/4 cup grated carrots from the salad bar
• 2 tablespoons chunky peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon raisins
• 1 tablespoon orange juice

I grated carrots from the produce section of the grocery store, because as school is out, I have no salad bars at my disposal. 

I used Jif Extra Crunchy Peanut Butter. 

Alright. It's confession time. I hate raisins. I tolerate them in my gluten-free cinnamon raisin bread, but I don't go out of my way to put them in food. However, I love craisins (dried cranberries.) I used  Ocean Spray Original Craisins instead of raisins, and you know what? It tasted way better that way. I think the craisins added a much better pop of flavor than boring old raisins ever could. 

Then I used store-brand orange juice. Hurray. Cheap.

Here is my finished spread:

The recipe suggested eating the spread on crackers. I haven't bought any gluten-free, vegan crackers lately, so I ate this with little tortilla rounds. They were perfectly bite-sized, and the slight amount of salt on the chips added a nice flavor to the spread. I will definitely be making this for future parties. If you're going to make this for a party, I suggest doubling or tripling the recipe, or maybe even quadrupling? It's really good, and you'll have to watch it to make sure that the one friend that everyone has who only comes to parties to eat all your food doesn't hog the whole thing. It's such a delicious recipe, I really don't blame the kid for wanting to eat it all. I know I probably could. I hope you all loved this! If you've tried the recipe with raisins and craisins, I'm curious to know which you liked better! Leave me a comment, and tell me about yours!

CTTVCC: Dirty Chick (Pea) Clean-Up Salad

Turn to page 115, please. This is a really delicious recipe that I know for sure I would not have thought of myself. It's a combination that I wouldn't have come up with, but yet, compliments each other very well. It's savory and sweet; soft and crunchy at the same time. It's a simple recipe that I know I will turn to in times of need, or need for something to pack as a lunch on those days when I don't feel like trusting the cafeteria.

The recipe calls for:

• 1 (15.5 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 cup diced celery
• 1 Red Delicious or Gala apple, cored and diced
• Salt, to taste

I used store brand chickpeas, and fresh celery, and a Gala apple. My favorite kind of apple (right now anyway,) is the Pink Lady apple, which I will use next time I make this salad. It would also be interesting to try using a Granny Smith apple for a more sour taste. Basically, it doesn't matter what kind of apple you use. The kind of apple will, obviously, slightly change the taste of the salad though. I would love to hear what kinds of apples you've used, and how you thought it tasted! Just leave a comment on this blog entry to let me know.

Also, I love celery. All the sources I've come across say that your body burns more calories to digest celery than the celery contains. Essentially, celery is negative calories. Figured I'd throw that out there, just in case you didn't know.

I only used a small pinch of sea salt, because I knew the chickpeas would taste great salted, but I wasn't sure about the apples.

Here is my finished salad:

This salad is really easy and fast to make. It doesn't require any baking, it doesn't really matter if your proportions are slightly off, you can eat as much or as little as you like at a time without wasting, or having half eaten sandwiches or whatever littering your fridge. It's packed with protein and fiber as well as good flavor. It makes a great snack or main course, and every bite is delicious. I hope you love this!

CTTVCC: Saffi's Chick Salad

This recipe is available on page 114. I admit, that I had my doubts about this recipe. I wasn't sure it would taste good with the olive oil. It did taste pretty good, however, next time I will probably use slightly less olive oil, that way it has the moisture without the slight greasiness.

The recipe calls for:

• 1/2 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 1/2 cups cooked rice
• 1 tablespoon chives
• 1 long English cucumber, peeled and finely chopped 
• 4 tablespoons dried parsley 
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

I used Earth Fare chickpeas, chives, cucumber, olive oil, salt, and pepper. I forgot to get parsley, and when I checked my house, we didn't have any. Too bad I wasn't visiting my out-of-town family though, I could have gotten some fresh from their garden. 

I used ReaLemon lemon juice. I would have preferred to use fresh juice, but I don't have fresh lemons and I do have lemon juice already. 

Here is my finished concoction:

This stuff was pretty good, and it kept fairly well. I ate it for lunch, but I made it the night before. It had a bit of a different taste than when it was fresh, (I sampled it as soon as I made it of course,) probably because the cucumber wasn't crisp anymore, but it didn't brown because of the lemon juice. If I was going to make it in advance though, I would probably make it the morning that I wanted to eat it for lunch though, instead of the night before. I definitely would recommend it though. It's very filling, and pretty tasty. I hope you all liked it as much as I did.

CTTVCC: Booty Shakin' Bagel

Today's recipe is located on page 41. This is a rather tasty recipe, and great for when you don't have much time, but want to eat something filling. It's very customizable and simple, yet not too simple. (I mean, you do have to actually do something. The recipe doesn't just say "open a vegan pop-tart package and eat it.")

The recipe calls for:

• 2 tablespoons vegan cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons jelly (your fave flavor)
• 1 bagel, sliced in half

I used Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, which is the brand most available to me, though, I'm sure other brands would work just as well, as long as you like the flavor.

For the jelly, I used Polaner Sugar-Free Blackberry Jelly with fiber.

Now, when it comes to the bagel, I could not fin gluten-free, vegan bagels for the life of me. I looked in all the grocery stores I could find, and got nothing. So, I decided that a gluten-free, vegan English muffin would work well too. I picked Food for Life Brown Rice English muffins, and toasted one. They have just the right amount of crisp to the outside, and they're deliciously soft on the inside.

 

So here is my finished not-bagel:

 

Because I had to switch out the bagel for an English muffin, I paired this recipe with a nice warm cup of English breakfast tea soy latte, and felt thoroughly like an American person wishing to feel like a British person. Really though, the combination is very good. The simple fruit-and-(vegan)-cream-cheese-on-(gluten-free)-bread taste went very well with mellow, sweet taste of the tea latte. The recipe is one I will definitely make again.

CTTVCC: Black Bean and Corn Salad (Extended Dance Mix)

This recipe is located on page 112 of TVCC. This version of the black bean and corn salad is really flavorful and tangy. I mean like, exploding with flavor, which is great for a recipe that is so easy to make. (No actual cooking required.) I liked it a lot, even though I'm not a big fan of vinegar. I would definitely recommend this for parties, since one batch makes a whole lot. (My mother actually asked me to make this for her next office party. Win!) This is also a great recipe to make and keep the leftovers in the fridge for a day when you're too lazy to make dinner. This salad is very versatile because you can eat it by itself, with corn chips, or in a taco shell. It makes a great side dish, snack, or entree. You can eat it cold, or hot. You could really do anything with it. I mean, this would even be good mixed in with mashed potatoes, for crying out loud.

The recipe calls for:

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (8.75 ounce) can corn, drained
• 1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes with chiles
• 1 teaspoon chives
• hot sauce, to taste

I used Newman's Own Balsamic Vinegar, and everything else was Earth Fare brand.

I actually used olive oil instead of vegetable oil, but I figured that olives are vegetables, and seeing as olive oil is regarded as a healthier oil, and the fact that I like the taste of olive oil much more than the taste of regular vegetable oil, and the fact that we didn't even have regular vegetable oil in the house, I think it's a much better alternative.

I couldn't find diced tomatoes with chiles, so I just used petite diced tomatoes. I don't think I really missed out on spiciness though, because I used red pepper instead of black pepper, because our black pepper was in a grinder, and the red pepper was pre-ground, and much easier to measure. That's also why I didn't bother using hot sauce.

Here is my finished food:

I had actually cut the recipe in half, an it was still a lot of food. Enough for 2 people actually. I did, in fact, stuff some of this into a crunchy taco shell, (trying to avoid as much of the liquid as possible,) and I also ate some with tortilla chips. Warning: This gets spicier the longer you eat it. I think that might have something to do with the red pepper I used, but hey. It wasn't a bad spicy. Who likes boring food anyway? It's nothing a cup of soy milk can't fix. So, my overall review: this stuff is really delicious, really versatile, really easy, really impressive, and really cheap. It really (I've been using that word a lot, huh?) lives up to the purpose of the cookbook. I would definitely make this again. (And I plan to. I might even throw a party just as an excuse to make all my friends try this recipe!) I hope you all loved this recipe just as much as I did! Let me know what you thought in the comments.

CTTVCC: O Baby

The recipe for today is on page 86 of TVCC. (I feel all fancy having my own abbreviation for this!) The only thing that could make this recipe better would be if you didn't have to let it cool in the fridge before eating it. I mean really, microwaves heat stuff practically instantly. Why don't we have instant cooling devices? Come on, science! Anyway, I think this recipe would work great for parties. It would also work well for hanging out with just one friend. (Especially if it's a over-nighter, particularly the kind where you don't sleep.) This could be a dessert or a snack. It's in the Spotlight on Peanut Butter section, so it doesn't really say what classification of food it's supposed to be. Heck, eat it for breakfast. Most of the ingredients are breakfast foods anyway.

The recipe calls for:

• 3 1/2 cups O-shaped vegan cereal 
• Handful vegan chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup peanut butter

I used Nature's Path Organic Whole O's Cereal, which is gluten-free and vegan. I understand that there are vegan O-shaped cereals out there that are not gluten-free for those of you who can eat wheat. (Watch out for the Vitamin D3 though. Apparently some brands use animal-derived D3.)

I really love Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips which are gluten-free, soy-free, and vegan. This brand also makes chocolate chunks that would probably work fabulously in this recipe as well. Those of you with big hands are lucky, because my handfulls are smaller than most people's. That is why I ended up putting a few extra in my O Babies.

Here it is with the ingredients so far:

I used generic maple syrup (which was still vegan) because that's what my family had in the pantry. Feel free to use the fancy stuff in your recipe if you'd like.

One thing I must say about the peanut butter for this recipe is: Use creamy if you can help it. I used crunchy which has less actual peanut butter in it because of the peanut chunks. If you use crunchy peanut butter, use a bit extra so that there is enough peanut butter to coat all the other ingredients.

Here is how it turned out:

 It was hard to get a square (or rectangle, rather,) that didn't fall apart because of the crunchy peanut butter not having enough actual peanut butter to it, but here is one little piece I managed to snag:

 

My little sister oh-so-helpfully ate over half of these when I wasn't looking. Oh well. At least she's eating vegan food when she eats my food. I'm sure it's better for me that she stole my dessert. Oh well. Obviously though, this stuff is really good. It's so tempting to make more of them right now, but I've got other desserts in the cookbook to make first. This is definitely going on my list of go-to recipes. Were you as impressed with these as I was?

CTTVCC: The Morning-After Scramble

This absolutely nomalicious recipe can be found on page 34. This was phenomenal. Amazing. Absolutely delicious. So so SO SOOOOOO GOOOOOD! Well, you know my opinion now. It is a wonderful recipe. For a while there, I was looking for the perfect tofu scramble recipe, and I could have saved myself a lot of time if I'd just looked at this one. This is supposed to be a breakfast recipe, and I agree. It works great for breakfast! It also would work great for lunch, dinner, or a snack. It's just scrumptious.

The recipe calls for:

• 8 oz salsa
• 1 (16-ounce) package extra-firm tofu, mashed
• Salt, pepper, and garlic powder, to taste
• 1/3 cup soy milk
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast

I used generic salsa because that's what my family had, but there was only mild salsa in the refrigerator, and I'm a fan of medium salsa at the minimum, so I supplemented the spice with a dash of cayenne (red) pepper.

 For the tofu, I used Nasoya Extra Firm Tofu, though, you could just as easily use Nasoya Lite Firm Tofu, (which I normally use,) that is only half the calories or the extra firm.  It just strikes me as funny that there is a "diet" version of tofu, which is normally considered a diet food in and of itself.

I used Organic Unsweetened Silk Soymilk, because the sweetened soy milk, even original flavor, always tastes weird to me in more savory recipes. If you want to use regular stuff though, knock yourself out. And hey, while you're at it, you could use any fake milk you wanted to! It seems like you can really never run out of options there.

For the Nutritional Yeast, I used Red Star brand nutritional yeast. (However, on their website, I can't find it listed in the products. But it's in my grocery store! I saw it there today when I was picking up more CTTVCC supplies!)

Here is what the tofu scramble looks like after cooking:

Don't mind the plate I hand-decorated in elementary school, but this is what it looks like on delicious toast :

Now then, this is a recipe that you either want to make for a lot of people, or only make part of it. I personally cut the recipe by a third, and I still had enough to load up 3 pieces of toast with it. This would also work as a breakfast burrito, you could eat it on tortilla chips, pita pockets, (The recipe says with potatoes or faux meat of some kind,) or just by itself. My mother tried some before she went to work, and she said it was so delicious, that she couldn't stop thinking about it all day at work. For real guys, this stuff is crazy-good.

CTTVCC: Broke-Ass Cinnamon Rolls

Open your cookbooks to page 40. This is another breakfast recipe that could be eaten anytime. Or all the time for that matter. I'm not even kidding. I made one, and then proceeded to make two more because I just couldn't get enough. These were the first cinnamon rolls I've had for as long as I can remember. There aren't many pre-made vegan cinnamon rolls that I've found, and I haven't found ANY gluten free, vegan cinnamon rolls. At all. Until these anyway, because the ingredients are so customizable.

The recipe calls for:

• 1 slice of white bread (or 5, ya know. In case you're addicted.)
• vegan margarine, to taste
• cinnamon, to taste
• sugar, to taste

I used gluten-free bread from a local bakery. Cutting off the crusts, and then smashing it flat reminded me of the good old days, way back in elementary school, when we did that to our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the cafeteria. Good times.

For the vegan margarine, I used original Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Spread. Then I put on a very generous amount of cinnamon, (Because I absolutely love cinnamon,) and sprinkled a bit of raw sugar on top of the cinnamon.

Once I finished microwaving it, I rolled it up, and decided I was too impatient to cut little min-cinni-rolls out of it, so I just ate it as it was. I did that with the other two as well, except for that they began to fall appart as I was rolling them, so I stacked them on top of each other, and rolled them up together. Then I decided that was much better, because it was the perfect bite size. Aren't they just adorable though?

I hope you all loved these as much as I did! This recipe is definitely an A+ in my book. You know it would probably be great for baby-sitting. and by baby, I mean toddlers or older. Because aside from accidentally getting cinnamon all over the whole kitchen if your cinnamon decides to explode, It's not that messy since it doesn't have any of that sticky sugar-paste-sause-stuff on top.

CTTVCC: Not-Just-For-Hippies Granola

Welcome to the first recipe of my cook-through of the Vegan College Cookbook! You can find it on page 36. As you can see from the title, this is a breakfast recipe. Or a snack or dessert too, I suppose. The book calls it breakfast though.

The recipe calls for:

• 1/2 cup vegan granola
• 3 tablespoons rasins or chopped dates (optional)
• 1 tablespoon almonds or nut of your choice (optional)
• 1 (6 oz container) soy yogurt (your fave flavor)

For the granola, I used Peace Cereal brand in french vanilla, which already has almond slivers in it, so I didn't add any additional nuts. It's gluten-free for those who have that limitation.

I don't really like raisins, and I didn't have dates, (except for tonight! ;P just kidding.) Anyway, so I used craisins. which I do like. Very much. Though, to be honest, I didn't measure them. I just kind of tossed them on top. But that's the thing about this recipe, It's super-customizable, and because it's not actually baking anything, the proportions don't matter quite as much.

For the yogurt, I used blueberry flavored Amande brand vegan yogurt, which is made from almonds instead of soy, but like I said, who cares? I've kind of been watching the amount of soy I eat anyway because too much soy can cause problems, kind of like too much of anything can cause problems, and sooooooo much vegan food is soy-based. (Besides, my favorite health-food grocery store has been running sales on the almond yogurt.) Amande Yogurt has live culture bacteria, (which are NOT animals, don't worry. They're in a totally different scientific kingdom.) Anyway, the live cultures are really good for your digestive system, and supposedly consuming live culture bacteria helps your body respond better to stress and recover from stress faster.

So here is the finished concoction:

 
I am declaring this rather delicious. I'll probably end up eating the rest of the box of granola this way because I don't love eating granola in just milk without anything else. It's like trying to eat crumbs with a spoon. It doesn't really work for me. Actually, I hadn't even meant to buy granola when I picked this up last week. It was on sale, and I just grabbed it thinking it was flakes with a little bit of granola to make it not boring like the brand's other cereals do. But good thing I had it, that way I could make this recipe, right?

I hope you all enjoy this recipe! Got feedback? I'd love to read your comments!

Gluten-Free, Vegan Cheese Melties

Recently, I have had to go gluten-free for medical reasons. That makes being vegan extra difficult because a lot of psuedo-meats and other vegan proteins are made with wheat. Also, a lot of gluten-free products aren't vegan, so it can get hard to balance. Really though, one of the things I miss the most is just bread. My inner carboholic has a hard time dealing with it, trust me. However, I found a fake sandwich round bread that is really delicious. Amy's Gluten-Free Sandwich Rounds are the perfect size for most veggie burgers, and they taste amazing. They also pair up perfectly with Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella for a delicious snack.
 

 

 

(FYI, when this cheese melts, it really melts. like, it turns to liquid. So, be very careful once you've heated it.) 

Really people, even if you aren't gluten-free, you should really try this stuff. It is so good and it goes perfectly with tomato soup, Ramen, pasta (gluten-free if need be,) or just about anything.