Teriyaki Seitan Skewers, 2 Sides, 2 Desserts

It FINALLY quit raining this weekend so we had to grill on Sunday. I drove through rain to get to the farmers market Saturday morning, then all of a sudden the sun came out. It felt so warm and I searched my purse for sunglasses that I hadn’t worn in 3 weeks. I happily began to gather veggies for the grill.

The main event was Teriyaki Seitan Skewers from Real Food Daily. I made the chik’n style seitan and one of the best teriyaki sauces we’ve ever had. It has fresh pineapple, mango, and orange juice in it, along with maple syrup and tamari. I marinated the seitan chunks in the sauce, though the recipe didn’t call for that, and I used all veggies and no pineapple on the skewers, again not according to the recipe. I found kabob size onions at the farmers market and some nice bell peppers. Chase basted the kabobs as they grilled.



The first kabob with no seitan is mine :( I selected two recipes from A Vegan Taste of Thailand for our sides. First was Pineapple Jasmine Rice. I added some shredded carrots to this (I always seem to have these on hand!) and this rice was the perfect spicy sweet complement to our kabobs.

The other selection was Broccoli, Red Pepper, and Sesame Salad. This was a cold salad of lightly steamed broccoli, and bell pepper, onions, cucumbers, and sesame seeds. The dressing was a simple mix of sesame oil, tamari, rice vinegar, garlic, and red pepper flakes. I added some grated coconut and peanuts for garnish. I made any of the recipes from this book, but so far it’s 2 for 2.

Chase asked for some bread, so I made another Buckwheat Potato Bread. It didn’t rise too good this time, but it still tasted great. (You know I like to blame the humidity when this happens!)

I had my heart set on making Alton Brown’s Lentil Cookies. The recipe intrigued me and I was sure anything AB makes is delicious. He is a food genius. I was fortunate enough to take Chase with me to one of his cooking classes at a local market a few years ago. These classes are so nice because seating is limited to about 30 people, you can ask questions and visit with the chef, and you can get autographs.

Here’s Chase’s book…..

…. and here’s mine.

I actually went to a Bobby Flay class that morning too. He was adorable and had partied too hard the night before, yet still gave an awesome demo. You know, that was an expensive day! But worth every penny in my opinion. I had a great time I’ll never forget. Oh, yeah, the Lentil Cookies. I didn’t love them warm from the oven, but the next day they were terribly addictive. I used chocolate chips instead of raisins and a flax “egg.” There’s definitely a different texture, but it’s not at all dry. And you don’t taste lentils, but there is noticeable but pleasantly different and distinct new flavor. I will definitely make these cookies again and try out lots of add-in variations.

I should tell you that the lime green and turquois placemats have been cheering me up through all of our dreary weather.

So Chase told me he WANTED the lentil cookies, but he NEEDED strawberry pie. I love when you kind of rush through a pie recipe and hope for the best, and then you hear it’s the best strawberry pie you’ve ever made! I don’t think it’s anything I did. It’s just that the strawberries are incredibly flavorful right now and I only added a little cornstarch slurry and a fourth cup of sugar to 2 pounds of strawberries to make this pie. I even used store bought graham cracker crust.

Especially yummy with Soy Delicious Vanilla.

Smokey came to dinner too and before we lit the grill, Chase pulled out this tiny harness and short leash and put on Smokey! Smokey took his first steps into grass.

He started out very hesitant, then became more curious and with a little encouragement went around about a third of my backyard.

The adventure completely exhausted him. I even saw him yawn. Isn’t that harness too much?!!!


Tomorrow is not quite my birthday, but it is my family birthday dinner, shared with my brother whose birthday was two weeks ago. We needed to select a restaurant that would please vegans and nons, and I have been curious about a new Brazilian restaurant, Sampaio’s. The flavors and ingredients in their meaty dishes sounded fabulous and there’s small print “Vegetarian Menu Available on Request.” My mom called and spoke to the chef personally who said he would be thrilled to create two vegan entrees for us tomorrow night. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with for us!

I just found out in the midst of this posting that I won Urban Vegan's dessert contest! I can't believe it - I'm so excited!

Independence Day Dinner – YOUR Recipes!

I planned a simple midweek burgers and fries dinner for our 4th of July food party, but it just kept raining all day – like it has been for the past 3 weeks – ugh! So instead of going shopping or to a movie, I stayed in the kitchen and made way too much food.

I soaked some pinto beans overnight Tuesday to make Crockpot Baked Beans. Aside from using pintos instead of white beans, I basically followed Bazu’s favorite recipe, Julia Child’s Boston Baked Beans. I was making twice as much as Bazu made, so I increased all the spices and added a can of tomato paste and some brown sugar. I didn’t increase the spices quite enough though, and about an hour before dinner added in a cup of spicy bottled barbecue sauce. I wish I hadn’t had to cheat, but these turned out fabulous and are so darn easy! Thanks for posting this recipe, Bazu!





Kate’s Black Bean Burgers were definitely on the menu. I looked at her recipe and I also looked at Sheree’s version. I used Kate’s ingredients and used Sheree’s additional ingredients of extra garlic, veggie broth, and flax seed meal, and her “everything into the food processor” instructions. I also added in a little grated carrot for color, and used one cup of oat flour instead of wheat germ to make them wheat free. I made six large patties.



I baked them at 350 for 15 minutes on each side.

These burgers were fantastic! Not only did they taste great, but they were so firm. They held together better than any recipe I’ve tried so far. I was hoping to be able to grill them, but since it was so wet out, I just stuck the patties in the oven with the sweet potato fries before dinner to heat them. I’m so happy to have found this recipe – thanks, ladies! Look at this awesome burger Chase made.

Like I said, I was bored and to kill time made 2 side dish salads. For the first one, I blanched some fresh green beans and added in corn, roasted red pepper, parsley, and onion. I made a balsamic dressing for it. This turned out nice and pretty and quite tasty.

The other salad was inspired by an old VT recipe, Rice Salad with Sweet Corn. I cooked some brown rice in veggie broth, then made my salad by adding in steamed broccoli (no corn), red cabbage, green onions, and orange bell pepper, and dressed it with a lemon vinaigrette. This was really really delicious and again, very pretty as well.

Here’s our table. The beans wouldn’t fit.

Finally, another must have was Amey’s strawberry peach ice cream. Her recipe is simply cashews, fruit, maple syrup, and a little vanilla all blended in the blender. You could actually stop right there and have the best smoothie of your life! But just take a taste and then go ahead and make the ice cream. I skipped the bun on my burger so I could eat this ice cream. I love it because it’s soy free, but mostly because it’s the best tasting and best textured vegan ice cream I’ve had so far. Thank you so much, Amey, for sharing your recipe! As you can tell from the picture, I had more strawberries than peaches, so my ice cream turned out quite pink. It’s beautiful on our Oreo cones.

To our amazement, the sun came out while we ate dinner so we decided to head downtown and watch the fireworks display.

Thank you all again for your terrific vegan recipes!

Pizza, Pizza, Pizza! Plus Peachy Slaw, Spicy Popcorn, and Cupcakes 3 Ways

Sunday night was pizza night! Chase always comes over starving, so I decided to have a popcorn snack ready for him. I popped some butter free popcorn, spread it on a baking sheet, and sprayed it with cooking spray. I mixed together cumin, chili powder, cayenne, garlic salt, cinnamon, and a little sugar and sprinkled it over the top. He and Liz ate every bit of it.

Chase brought Smokey over! He’s so sweet and just crazy about Chase. Remember when I could hold him in the palm of my hand? Not any more!

Chase helped me make the pizzas while Liz watched Smokey run around. (He also took all the pizza pictures.) I had two whole wheat crusts ready to roll out. First we made Thai Pizza on the pizza stone. The crust was spread with peanut sauce and topped with tofu, carrots, spinach, cilantro, green onions, toasted coconut, and peanuts.

Before baking…..

…. and after.

Next we made Mexican Pizza on a baking sheet. Its crust was spread with spicy mashed black beans and salsa, and topped with pintos, corn, green pepper, tomatoes, and cilantro.

Before baking…..

…. and after. We tried a few slices of FYH Monterey Jack on top. It sorta melted.

I had gluten free diet pizza. I grilled a Portobello on the Foreman and topped it with jarred spaghetti sauce and nutritional yeast.

It was excellent! Not at all like pizza, but I really enjoyed it. The kids ate all the Thai pizza and half of the Mexican pizza. I had a taste of each. They both turned out great, including the crust. Chase said he had always dreamed of a pizza with peanut sauce, so he loved the Thai pizza. Liz and I preferred the Mexican pizza with all the veggies on top.

Along with broccoli, I made a Peachy Jicama Cole Slaw. I julienned some jicama and diced a few peaches and added it to broccoli slaw and cilantro. I made a dressing of apple cider and olive oil and let that mingle with the peach juices. It was very tasty and pretty, and a great side for the pizza.

I made Lemon Gem Cupcakes from VWAV for dessert. I made three versions:

Patriotic (we’re having ice cream on the 4th of July)…..

…. regular …

…. and diet.

One of these is for the freezer until I can take it to my mom. These were really great tasting cupcakes, especially with extra strawberries and blueberries with it – like shortcake! The icing didn’t hold up too well, but nobody noticed. Chase and Liz each ate three! I really am on a diet. My birthday is around the corner and I can’t be old AND fat!

Smokey hopes you all have a fabulous Fourth!

Saturday Night Out and Sunday Barbecue Chik’n

Saturday we visited our new Ethiopian restaurant, Aster’s. I took my camera, but the food came to the table so quickly and it was so beautiful that we all just starting eating and didn’t get a picture! I did find a picture on the internet, though, and I promise our food looked exactly like this.



It was so awesome, similar to Indian food, but quite a bit spicier with a few more veggies offered. All nonmeat items are vegan (there are 15!), so the menu was easy. None of us were sure how much we liked the injera. It was a lot more sour than I’m used to in a bread. But we will definitely go back to Aster’s.

Although it was rainy and not exactly an ice cream type of evening, I had already decided it was time to try Oatscreme. We went to Dhaba Joy, a small vegan bakery that also serves Oatscreme.

I couldn’t hold my ice cream cone and snap a picture, but I can say that Oatscreme is smooth and creamy, and the vanilla is better than the chocolate (I got a swirl). We also got 2 to-go items, an Oat and Blueberry coffee cake that was really good….

and a Whoopie Pie that was so sweet it hurt your teeth.

Next time we’ll try a brownie.

For Sunday dinner I made Chik’n Seitan from LDV, then went ahead and baked it in homemade barbecue sauce to be sure it held up on the grill. We put some onions and a yellow pepper on the grill too. The chik’n was a little dense, but really tasty.

On the side was Fattoush.

The recipe I found on the ‘net said it was from Bryanna’s Almost No Fat Cookbook. I couldn’t use purslane a/k/a pigweed because I’m allergic to it when it pollinates in the fall, so I used watercress instead. It was deliciously different, with romaine, arugula, watercress, and mint. And the pita croutons are so good!


We also had the ususal broccoli, this time with cauliflower.

And a beautiful yellow rice with black beans from this recipe. The beans had chipotles in them and this too turned out to be a really good dish.

For dessert I made a revamped version of my recipe for Urban Vegan’s contest, Extreme Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Tart with Caramel Sauce. Instead of tartlets, which I decided was too much pastry, I made a regular size tart. It’s so chocolate-y good!

Yes, I’m now on a diet.

Lots of Veggies and 2 Vive Recipes for Father’s Day

Here’s what I’ve made this past very busy week:

Sauteed leftover kabob veggies.


Scarlet runner beans from the farmers market – my favorite (next to broccoli).

Sunny delite squash from the farmers market with broccoli and onions. The squash and skin were soft and delicious!

Asparagus with apricot vinaigrette (apricot all fruit jam, red wine vinegar, garlic, S&P). The vinaigrette was good, but plain ol’ asparagus tastes better to me. I eat them like breadsticks.

I'll call this corny guacamole – it started out to be chowder (avocado, corn, and almond milk - a recipe from Veg Times), but then I decided to just add some chili powder and cumin to the corn and mashed avocado. It was good, cold, spicy, crunchy guacamole.

I spent Father’s Day with my dad, mom, and brother. For dinner, my dad barbecued ribs and corn on the cob. My mom made an excellent fruit salad. I made a family size tossed salad.

It has mixed greens and broccoli slaw, steamed broccoli and onions, avocados, strawberries, and an assortment of chopped nuts. It was really good and even better with my mom’s fruit salad added to it.

I made myself Chickpea Ratatouille from Vive le Vegan.

It’s so easy to put together and tastes great, which is a good thing because it makes a bunch! The mustard seeds in the spice mix really give it a unique flavor. I had it over brown rice.

I made Chase and his dad Pineapple Lemon Bars, also from Vive. I added some lovely organic strawberries to it. I got 2 pounds of organic, perfect strawberries for $2.99!

It smelled so good, but I didn’t get to taste it and Chase forgot to come get it, so it’s in the freezer waiting for someone to eat it!