"Meaty" Summer Cream Sauce

This recipe is a great end to a summer day. It can be used over any pasta. It works great with three color pastas. The picture shows regular spaghetti, because that's all I had on hand when I made it. It utilizes fresh Campari tomatoes and garden basil. If you haven't tried these tomatoes yet, do so!! They are a fantastic tomato for pastas and salads.

"Meaty" Summer Cream Sauce

1 package silken tofu (not the anti-sceptic package)

5 Campari tomatoes

3 sprigs of fresh garden basil

salt and black pepper to taste

Here is how simple this recipe is. Blend all ingredients in a blender, then heat to a low boil in a sauce pan. Serve over pasta, preferably three color. That's it! How simple is this great dish?!

Blackened Tofu - Seasoning Review

Today for lunch I wanted something spicy, and I also had a few spare cubes of tofu. Blackened tofu came straight to my mind. I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com for Blackened Chicken. That is my favorite website to look up recipes I can't find in cookbooks and veganize them. This is how I get most of my ideas for my vegan recipes. It usually takes cooking a few failures, but in the end, I always get a very nice finish! Give it a try!

This seasoning mix was very spicy. If you are not a fan of something really spicy, then just leave out the cayenne pepper. Adjust the cayenne to how much spice you want. The recipe's suggestion of 1/4 tsp. had my mouth burning for a while, so keep that in mind while mixing this.

Overall, this recipe is quite tasty, but it is only for those who can handle a little spiciness. It is definitely not a recipe you make for guests. There are many people with an allergy to cayenne pepper, so exercise caution when serving this dish.


I rate this recipe with 3 Onigiris!

Chipotle Chili-Black Bean Burger Review

Last night I made Chipotle Chili-Black Bean Burgers from a recipe in the Student’s Go Vegan Cookbook. This recipe also comes with a sweet corn relish recipe, but I opted out of that. This recipe came together really quickly. I bought a can of black beans, even though I won’t buy anything but tomato paste in a can, and I made sure to rinse them extremely well to get all of the salt off that I could. In no time, I had my burger mixture, and it turned out perfect with very little work. The recipe calls for rolled oats, but I eat steel cut, so instead I processed unsalted saltines in a blender. It still molded perfectly.

They cook up nicely, and get a little crispiness on the outside. It’s not really a recipe to cook dry, so I sprayed the pan with a little bit of olive oil so they wouldn’t stick and burn. I really need more hard-anodized cookware! We had them on double fiber whole wheat bread with the Vegan Cheddar Cheese. They turned out great and even pleased an Omni! I think these burgers tasted much better than the frozen black bean burgers you buy at the grocery store. This is definitely a recipe I add to my repertoire.

I rate this recipe with 4 Onigiris!

Whole Wheat Drop Biscuits

There is nothing like a hot biscuit for breakfast, or as a side to a hot dinner. Biscuits are always the first thing to fight over at a family dinner. It seems that there are never enough of them. So we vegans should not be left out of the delicious aroma!

This is a recipe for drop biscuits. The two main types of biscuits that are often served at breakfast and dinner are baking powder and drop biscuits. Baking powder biscuits are the type you roll and cut out, and drop biscuits are exactly what they sound like; you drop them on your pan and bake them.

Drop biscuits are great for when you don't have time to make the flaky layers of a baking powder biscuit. They are a soft, fast biscuit to make when you are in a hurry or are making a last minute dinner.

Whole Wheat Drop Biscuits

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup vital wheat gluten
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup melted vegan margarine
1 cup soy milk

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Stir flour, gluten, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
3. Stir milk into dry mixture 1/2 cup at a time.
4. Stir in melted margarine.
5. Drop a heaping tablespoons of dough onto dark coated cookie sheets.
   
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes.