CTTVCC: Leafy Nuggets

The recipe for this salad can be found on page 93. The book claims that this is a painless way to get your greens, and they're totally right. I've never had a problem with eating my vegetables, but occasionally, simple salads are just too boring. Even though this is an extremely basic salad, it's still delicious.

The recipe calls for:

• 1 (16 ounce) bag of pre-washed salad greens
• 1 (10 ounce) box vegan chicken patties
• Vegan salad dressing, to taste

I picked Organic Girl 50/50 salad mix which is half spring greens, and half spinach. Spinach is one of my favorite greens, if not my absolute favorite. It's my main source of iron (probably, that is, I've never sat down and actually calculated that.) The main thing to remember about spinach is that you have to consume plenty of vitamin C along with it in order to absorb the iron from the leaves.



I used Beyond Meat Lightly Seasoned Chicken-Free Strips which are gluten-free, and vegan. I have only been able to find gluten-free, vegan strips though, not patties. lucky for me, this recipe ends up turning these into strips, which saved me a bit of work. For those of you who can still have gluten, I'm sure Gardein would work fine. Really though, it tastes so much like chicken that I actually felt guilty the first time I used it in a recipe, even though I knew it was completely fake. It's almost creepy how similar the texture is to meat. I just hope I don't develop a soy allergy, or I won't be able to eat any pseudo-meat.



I used Annie's fat-free raspberry balsamic, but it really would have tasted better with Italian dressing or a vegan ranch. The sweetness didn't compliment the faux meat very well in my opinion, but it wasn't bad. Even a tangy fruit dressing would have worked. Hey, just straight up lemon juice would taste awesome with this.



Overall this is great. I really don't know if I've ever put faux meat on a salad before. I might have put chopped up veggie burger on a salad one or twice before, but I don't ever remember it. Honestly, I don't know if it had occurred to me to put faux chicken on a salad. It seems super-obvious, but since I was never a huge fan of meat, even before gong vegan, I never felt like I was missing out. It seems like a good way to get protein though. I definitely plan on making this again.

CTTVCC: Morning in Mexico Scramble

Due to an unexpected chain of events, I am posting this rather late. I know I'm sorry. So, I decided that because it's so late, I'll post a breakfast recipe. This recipe is on page 27. The only thing is, it really doesn't taste like a breakfast recipe. It's really good though, and I've gotten my mom absolutely hooked on tofu scramble because of this recipe, and the Morning-After Scramble recipe. Score. Anyways, you could eat this for just about any meal under the sun. You could even make up some meals as an excuse to eat this stuff.

The recipe calls for:

• 1 (16-ounce) package firm tofu, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups corn tortilla chips
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 2 cups salsa

I used Nasoya Extra Firm Tofu again, as well as Earth Fare brand onion powder, and Whole Foods brand (365 Organic) salsa. I would recommend using a spicier salsa. After all, tofu is not exactly packed with flavor.

I used spinach and kale tortilla chips from The Better Chip. They have a bit more of a spicy flavor to them because of the kale, but regular (vegan) tortila chips would probably be just fine.


This is what my tofu scramble looked like:

Then I made part of it into a taco. And surprisingly, it went well with broccoli.

This is another one of those rather versatile foods. At first, I thought to myself: "Self, what am I going to eat this with?" And then I was like "Hmmm. . . I could always eat it on top of more chips." So, I did. And then after eating a bunch of it on more chips, I thought that maybe it would taste good on (gluten-free) toast as well. Which is did. I didn't try using any vegan margarine on the toast though, which I'm sure would taste good. Must say though, it probably wouldn't be very noticeable.

I actually only made a third of the recipe, and it was still plenty of food for 2 people.Well, actually, I made a third of the recipe twice. See, the first time, I accidentally made it with garlic powder instead of onion powder. So, once I realized what I did, I had to make a second batch with onion powder. But both times, a third of the recipe was enough for 2 people. It was pretty good though, both times. I'm not sure which one was better. I can't really describe the difference in the taste except for the obvious. One was more garlicy, and the other was more oniony. But the weird part is, the garlic powder one was more oniony, and the onion powder one was more garlicy. How crazy is that? JUST KIDDING! Anyway, if you have garlic powder, and don't have onion powder, I don't think it's worth going out and buying another bottle of spices just to make the recipe. If you feel like trying both, and telling me which one you like better, that would be awesome! As always, I'm curious to know what other people thought of the recipes. (Especially if you followed any of my modifications.)

CTTVCC: Hearty Hummus Sandwich

Hi Everyone, and welcome to another entry in CTTVCC! Today's recipe is on page 50. This is a delicious, and simple, yet filling sandwich. I happen to really like hummus sandwiches, especially since my school's sandwich shop offers hummus as a protein on their "create your own" sandwich menu. Hummus is also incredibly good on veggie burgers. Then you have awesomely protein-packed deliciouswhiches. All that to say, hummus is really good on sandwiches.

The recipe calls for:

• Hummus, to taste
• 2 slices thick-crusted sourdough bread
• 1-2 leaves lettuce
• 3-4 cherry tomatoes, halved

I used Publix original hummus, but I would recommend Sabra Tuscan Herb Garden Hummus, which is the favorite of pretty much everyone in my family. It's got a lot of flavor to it, which would help make sure your sandwich isn't boring.

 

I used Food For Life Brown Rice Bread, because obviously, I can't eat regular sourdough bread. 

I used generic lettuce and these cute little yellow grape tomatoes. I figured that yellow tomatoes are less common, and thus more exotic. I think they're also a little sweeter than regular cherry tomatoes.

Here is my finished sandwich:

Overall, I think this is pretty good. It's a little simplistic, but that's not always a bad thing. Perhaps if you swapped the lettuce for spinach. Then you could pack in a bit of extra iron. That sounds really good actually. I want to go make that now. I also kind of wish that I'd used some cherry tomatoes too though. I could have made a little pattern with the yellow and red tomato halves. That would be cute! This is a pretty low-effort recipe, and obviously, it's not something to make when you're pretending to be fancy, but it's pretty balanced for when you need a quick bite to eat, I think. If you're absolutely famished, you'll probably want a bit more to eat than just this sandwich, though. Also, these can get a bit messy if you put too much hummus on them. But, as long as no one's watching, the mess is worth it!

CTTVCC: Rent's Due "Cheezy" Ramen

If you turn to page 133 of TVCC, you will find this super-simple, easy "cheezy" recipe. This is delicious, and super-simple. I can't believe I'd never thought of putting nutritional yeast in noodles before. I mean, you already have to add a package of powder-flavoring, so why not just add some extra powdered nutritional yeast? Easy. Plus, it actually gives your ramen some protein and vitamins so you aren't just eating carbs with water.

The recipe calls for:

• 1 package ramen (try Top Ramen Oriental flavor)
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

The only vegan, gluten-free "ramen" I've been able to find is Dr. McDougall's Pad Thai Noodle Soup because Pad Thai uses rice noodles. If you have been able to find other gluten-free noodles, please, comment and let me know.



I accidentally grabbed Dr. McDougall's Pad Thai Noodle, which isn't a soup. It doesn't use as much water, so it leaves a sauce instead of a broth. So, I just used extra water to make it more soupy. This stuff comes with little tofu cubes that are reconstituted when you cook them in the water, so that your food isn't totally boring.


I used Red Star nutritional yeast. I'm actually starting to kind of run low on the stuff. I'm thinking about trying a different brand, or perhaps buying it in bulk to see if they all taste the same.

Here is what my soup looked like:

When I made this, I only had the cup-sized noodle packages, which is one serving, and the full-sized packages are 2 servings, so I just cut the nutritional yeast in half. Pad Thai has a lot of it's own flavor, but it didn't clash with the nutritional yeast flavor. I think the nutritional yeast actually helped enhance the flavor. I've pretty much decided that unless I'm making a different Vegan College Cookbook recipe, I'm always going to put nutritional yeast in my noodles. I would definitely recommend this recipe is you're wanting to make noodles. It was rather tasty. If you made your soup with a different flavor, let me know how it turned out! I'm really curious to try other favors, (especially the flavor that the book recommends,) but obviously, if it's not gluten-free too, I can't eat it. I hope you guys were as impressed as I was!

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: Fake Blondes

The natural habitat of this phenomenal recipe is page 294 of TVCC. How many girls wouldn't kill for instant brownies? Guys, I'm sure you can win the heart of any girl with these babies. Girls, I'm betting this recipe will be going on your list of favorites. This is pretty much as close as I've ever seen anyone come to successful instant brownies. Not to mention vegan, gluten-free (I'm my case anyway) brownies. These were a delicious, satisfying, easy, don't-have-to-have-much-patience, rich, relatively not bad for you, amazing chocolate fix. They were good enough to eat the entire batch, yet rich enough to be perfectly satisfied with one serving. When has that ever happened before? How about NEVER.

The recipe calls for:

• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips

I used Earth Fare brand sugar, salt, vanilla extract, and Earth Fare brand sugar-free applesauce. I would advise trying to find applesauce without high fructose corn syrup. A lot of name brand apple sauce sneaks that in there and it makes your food not as good for you. Just a tip, I have found that when you use applesauce as an ingredient in baking, your food won't stick to the sides of the container you bake them in. In fact, there's always a bit of a gap between the edge, and the baked item. My super-scientific guess is that the water in the applesauce mostly evaporates, and when it does so, the food slightly shrinks, pulling it away from the edge of the pan/bowl/whatever. It makes sense to me, but hey, I'm not a chemist . . or a professional chef.

My mother absolutely detests canola oil, so I didn't have any around the house. Instead I used Earth Fare brand extra-virgin olive oil. I was a bit nervous when I was putting the mixed batter in the microwave because I could still smell the olive oil a bit, but once they were completely cooked, I couldn't smell it or taste it.

Since I'm gluten-free, I obviously didn't use whole wheat flour. I used Jules all-purpose gluten-free flour. I think the gluten-free flour made my fake blondes a bit chewier than normal brownies, so anyone who used normal flour (you non-gluten-free humans out there,) please let me know how the consistency turned out. I am super-curious, but obviously, I can't try it out myself.

For the coca powder, I used Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder because I LOVE dark chocolate. I'm sure non-dark chocolate works great too though.

Lastly, I used Enjoy Life semi-sweet mini chocolate chips, and I cannot tell a lie, I didn't measure them. I had a mostly used up bag of them, and I figured there was at least half a cup, and that if my brownies had extra chocolate, then Vive La Chocolat! (Pardon my french.)

Here is my delicious finished product:

This is actually the surface of the moon. They lied. It's not made of cheese. It's made of Fake Blondes. Just kidding. But seriously, the moon would be a lot cooler if it was made of this and not fancy rocks.

Ahhhhh! Don't you just want to bite your screen? Mmmmmmmmm. Mmmmmmmmake these now. They're so yummy.

One thing I must say is that they weren't very blonde. Perhaps they have gone back to their natural color? Haha! I was expecting blondies though, because of the name, but these were definitely brownies. Or maybe that's why they're "fake" blondes. . . because they're really brunettes? Eh. . . I don't know. I do want to make blondies with this recipe now though. (As soon as I'm done not sharing the other 3 servings of these things.) By the way, these taste best when they're at least warm, if not hot, with a side of your favorite vegan vanilla ice cream.

P.S. I like your natural hair color best!

CTTVCC: No-Need-To-Visit-A-Diner-For-Hash-Browns Casserole

This recipe is available on page 42. I apologize for posting this recipe review so late in the day, (I've been helping my older sister move,) and I apologize in advance for only having one picture of my finished product. it smelled too delicious to wait for more than one picture to dig in. While I don't normally consider broccoli a breakfast food, this breakfast casserole was pretty good. I guess I would think of it more as brunch, which is exactly what I made it for. Who needs to wake up before noon anyway? I cut the recipe in half just because I was only intending to make it for one person (me,) with maybe one or two sample-filchers. It didn't say exactly what size of a container to cook it in, so I used a glass bread pan and had plenty of room for more. I'm not positive that it would hold the entire recipe, but I'm sure it would at least come close.

The recipe calls for:

• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Olive oil, for coating
• 1 (20 ounce) bag shredded potatoes (can also use hash-brown-style potatoes), thawed
• 1 (12 ounce) bag veggie veggie burger crumbles, thawed
• 1 (10 ounce) bag frozen broccoli florets, thawed
• Hot sauce (optional)

I used Red Star Nutritional Yeast again. I don't know why, but I like nutritional yeast in recipes, even though I'm not particularly fond of the smell of it when it's dry in the container. (My sisters complain about it every time I use the stuff.) Really though, it never ceases to amaze me that you can make it taste so much like cheese. What is this wizardry?

Instead of using soy milk, I used Unsweetened Flax Milk which is a great source of Omega-3s without fish oil. (Blech!) I don't recommend substituting flax milk in everything, but for most recipes or cereal it's great. It just tastes kinda gross in coffee or tea. The main reason I like using this stuff is because it's only 25 calories for an 8 oz serving. (The sweetened version is still only 50 calories.) It's just an easy way to keep the food slightly healthier without sacrificing flavor.

 I used generic olive oil, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and broccoli florets.

 It took me forever to find ANY hash-brown style potatoes, but I think I was just not looking in the right place. I did finally find these Alexia Hashed Browns and they worked fabulously. I don't know why Alexia has past-tense hashed browns instead of present-tense hash browns like everyone else, but whatever. Maybe they wanted more letters on their packaging.

For the veggie burger crumbles, I used Marjon Original Tofu Crumbles. I found them one day at Publix grocery store, and as soon as I realized they are gluten-free and vegan, I instantly made them a staple in my refrigerator.

I didn't use any hot sauce, just because I've never been a huge fan of the stuff. I might have tried it if we'd had hot sauce lying around the house. However, we didn't, and I didn't want to be responsible for eating all of it if I had bought a new bottle.

This is my finished casserole:

Overall, this recipe is pretty good. It took a little bit longer to fix than other recipes I've made so far, but I think that might have just been that I had to actually measure things because I cut the recipe in half. I found it very satisfying and filling. I would definitely make this recipe again, and I think my cats hope I do too. This is the sort of food that tends to make you accidentally drop crumbs, and my kittens seemed to think this was just the greatest stuff ever. Though, admittedly, they aren't that discriminant when it comes to food. Whatever. This was yummy! I honestly wish I had made more of it so I could have pigged out. I hope you all liked it too!

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.