Tag Archives: soy milk

May 01 2013
3 Comments
Snacks

May-king a Comeback!

Hi, Veganesers! It’s me, Melissa, coming back from… well, I never really left. But I haven’t been keeping up with the blog. Sadface. I have excuses — some are even valid — but this isn’t a confessional. It’s a blog about turning vegan.

Can you guys believe that it’s already May? I’m glad April is over. May 2012 brought a lot of great surprises and I’m hopeful that May 2013 will be the same. What I’m most excited about is that it finally feels like spring in Chicago. Outdoor Farmers Markets! Dining al fresco! Sunshine! Fresh garden veggies on the horizon! All that said, I still spend most of my time cooped up in the office. Luckily, I have provisions.

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Here are just some of the snacks I currently have at my desk:

The CLIF bar that’s hiding back there is my emergency snack, in case I don’t have time to get lunch or am about to hulk out from being so hungry.

The soy milk was given to me by my co-worker Joelen, who has her own food blog (it’s not vegan, but it’s wickedly awesome and she’s an awesome person so check it out). I’ll be opening it soon and using it for my morning cereal and afternoon coffee.

Last but not least are some dried mangoes that my Mom brought back from the Philippines. These are in every Asian market in Chicagoland, so you don’t need to fly to the Philippines to get them. Truth time (even though I did say that this isn’t a confessional): I used to hate these. In fact, when my Mom asked if she should bring some back, I replied, “Nah.” But I found myself craving these, so I brought a bag to work. They were so freaking delicious. Great alternative to gummy bears for anyone who is jonesing for one of those. Furthermore, my co-workers who hadn’t tried them before really liked them. I feel like they’re different enough from real mangoes to stand on their own as a vegan treat.

Not pictured but also currently at my desk are nuts, chips (sigh… chips… I can’t quit you), Biscoff spread, and granola bars. If I ever complain about being hungry at work, you have permission to slap me.

What snacks do you have at your desk or office? Let me know! It’s good to be back!!! –Melissa

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Dec 06 2012
3 Comments
Main Dishes

Potatoes Au Gratin, VEGAN STYLE!!!

The holidays are upon us and there’s nothing better than something that’s easy, kid friendly (for your picky nephews), low fat (for your vain body-builder cousin), cholesterol free (for your crotchety aunt), easy (for your peace of mind) and cheap (because you already spent all your money on gifts). This recipe as written will serve 6-8 people as a side dish and doubles easily. It would be great for a departmental potluck.

You’ll need the following:

2 large white potatoes (sliced thin)

2 gigantic yams or sweet potatoes (sliced thin)

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Potatoes, sweet potatoes and yams are easy to find for around $1 per pound this time of year so I use them fairly often during the holidays. I cut mine with a big old knife. This is one of those times I wish I wasn’t averse to mandolines. The finger that I partially amputated using one always tingles whenever I think about working with one. If you’ve got a good food processor with a slicing blade, I’d recommend using that for safety’s sake, if you’re a fan of the mandoline, use that and be really really really really careful, otherwise use a knife and be really really really careful. I leave the skin on; you don’t have to.

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1 tbsp onion powder

1/2 tbsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

a pinch of flake red pepper

3 tbsp nutritional yeast

12-16 ounces of silken tofu

1 cup of soy or almond milk

4 tbsp almond flour

vegan mozzarella and/or parmesan (optional)

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Take the onion powder, garlic powder, salt, flake red pepper, nutritional yeast, tofu and half a cup of milk and blend it all up.

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Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of almond flour on the bottom of a large baking dish and make a layer of white potatoes on it.

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Then slather that layer with some of your tofu mixture. Now repeat the process with the yams or sweet potatoes: layer them on top and then add the tofu cream. You should be able to get 5 or 6 layers of potatoes. I then put the remaining milk into the rest of the tofu sauce and mixed it well before pouring it over the top of the potatoes. I added a few slices of Teese mozzarella (any vegan cheese will do) and sprinkled it with the rest of the almond meal and sprinkled it liberally with walnut parmesan.

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Bake it for an hour and a half at 400F/200C

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You should get a beautiful layered look and a delicious addition to any holiday meal. Hopefully your guests will be too busy enjoying it to notice the orange and white stripes.

This is Christie and Brent, signing off!

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Aug 25 2012
7 Comments
Cooking

Perfect Pancakes

I have tried a handful of vegan pancake recipes and they have all been disasters until I decided to try this 5 Minute Vegan Pancakes recipe. I first tried it about one or two months ago. They turned out so well that I really wanted to write about them, but I decided that I better try them again to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.

It wasn’t a fluke.

There is a minimal number of ingredients. In addition, both times I have used this recipe, I didn’t have to do the usual tossing of the first pancake. You know what I’m talking about.

I tweaked the recipe a bit today and used the following ingredients:

1 cup flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour)
1 tbsp turbinado
2 tbsp baking powder
2 tsbp flax meal
pinch of salt
1 cup almond milk (I used soy milk the last time; either is fine)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 c or so of dried blueberries

I mixed all the ingredients in a bowl…

…and then I cooked the pancakes. That’s all there was to it.

Yay! Fluffy vegan pancakes! As you can see, I couldn’t even pause to take a photo before digging in. Actually, I ate the first pancake as soon as it came off the pan. That’s how delicious these are. They’re even better with some maple syrup and a side of tempeh strips.

Next vegan pancake challenge: Swedish pancakes! –Melissa

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May 07 2012
2 Comments
Dining Out

Vegan Goodies at O’Hare Part 2: Eggplant Parmesan

Last week, I wrote about how I stumbled upon a great spot for vegans at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and reviewed the Grilled Southwest Tofu Wrap. Today, I’d like to tell you about the other prepared food that I purchased: Vegan Eggplant Parmesan.

It wasn’t the most photogenic food, but goodness it was delicious — “gross-looking but tasty” has been a theme this week. I have to admit that I was skeptical. I have had vegan pasta dishes before where tofu subbed in for cheese, but I hadn’t had any worth blogging about.

As you can see, there aren’t that many ingredients. My first bite served as an acclimation to the non-cheese taste. My second bite was better. By my third, I was in love with it. Unlike traditional parmesan dishes, it wasn’t bready, greasy or saucy. It was almost like a light and creamy vegan cake with soft layers of fresh eggplant and perfectly made vegan cheese. It had a great texture to it, and I would have sworn that the cheese was tofu-based if I didn’t see in the ingredients list that it was soy milk-based.

I got three meals out of the 10oz container, which made it worth the price. As a reminder, I found this in the AIRPORT! Unbelievable. I am actually sad to know that my next planned flight will be out of a different terminal, so I won’t be visiting Cibo Express.

There are still more goodies from the airport and Toronto that I’ll tell you about soon, and they’re all snack items. Yay! –Melissa

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Apr 16 2012
4 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes

Cuban Inspired Shepherdless Pie

After working with plantains more often, I wanted to try a vegan shepherdless pie using ingredients popular in cuisine from our island neighbor to the South. Cuban food commonly has a lot of interesting vegan elements: plantains, yuca, beans, rice and bananas. I’m a big fan of those things so this dish made sense. This is what we started with for the mashed plantains:
8 plantains (8 fist sized potatoes would work too)
1/4 cup of Diaya cheese
1/2 cup of soy milk (any non-dairy milk will work, almond if you’ve got a soy allergy)
2 tbsp vegan margarine

I peeled the plantains and put them into water to boil. Plantains and potato have similar nutritional profiles except that plantains have a significant amount of vitamin A, where potato has none. They’re both starchy, provide vitamin C, and are free of fat and cholesterol. Getting back to business, while that was happening I prepared the filling with the following ingredients:
1 white onion, diced
1 jalapeño, minced
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup of black beans, soaked overnight or 1 can of beans, partially drained
1 can of diced tomato
10 okra, ends removed and sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 lb. frozen corn kernels
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
1/2 tsp cumin
salt and chili powder to taste

I browned the onion, garlic and jalapeño along with the cumin until the onion became translucent. Then we added the okra, tomato, beans, corn and cilantro and stirred until everything was steamy and sticky from the okra.

Brent took the plantains and combined them with the milk, cheese and margarine and mashed them until they were gloriously creamy. They were really dry so you might need to add more soy milk depending on your plantains (or potatoes).Check out that radical dedicated mooshing face.

He also prepared a base layer in our baking dish of tortillas and daiya to aid in scooping but it’s not necessary.

He spread the mashed plantains over the hot veggies and we put it into the oven for 20 minutes at 350C/175F until it was bubbly and delightful.

It was a hearty filling meal, loaded with vegetables and flavors. It made even better leftovers after everything had a night to marinade in it’s own juice.

Next time I might tweak the seasoning but overall it was a success. We ate half the tray and the rest is disappearing fast.

This is Brent and Christie, signing off.

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