Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Post all your thoughts and pics here for the second week of the challenge. The book we'll be cooking from this week is American Vegan Kitchen.

I'm excited! One of my favorite books <3

I actually bought it when it was included in the last challenge, but was sick that week, and never used it, and haven't tried anything at all since then, even though I've had that book in my collection for at least half a year now.

I'm sure I won't make all this, but I've planned: French toast, 3 chile hummus, avo cucumber soup, bbq portobellos with chipotle bbq sauce, no tuna melt panini, tacos, chocolate pudding cake, and espresso shake.

haha!

I don't have the book but I still want to play! I spent some time looking at Tami's blog and am going to make:
Tofu TLT's
Apple Crisp
I'm thinking about making some sort of soup. I really really wish I could make the baked potato soup from the book.

I'm going to make the chili, but with red wine instead of beer. Hope that works out! Other than that, I don't know yet. Perhaps the beans and rice recipe.

I have a very busy week ahead so I know I'll be using Tami's Cheesy sauce recipe with some pasta and veg for dinner one night. I also cheated and made her yankee cornbread last week! Next Friday (day off work) I plan on making Anytime French Toast my absolute favorite french toast recipe) for breakfast. I wasn't able to take photos last week; I'll try again this week.

21st Century Tacos

This is a good TVP meat taco, but I'm not a huge fan of TVP. I think we both prefer bean tacos (I threw in some pintos). I might do this spicing with just pintos or refried. I did enjoy these, and mine came out quite spicy with a whole jalapeno and chipotle. Good seasoning. Yummy tacos.

I made the Cinnacrunch Muffins this morning. Super yummy!

Yay! I can't wait to get back into this book. I had so much fun with it during the last challenge. I'm thinking of doing a sandwich or two, Italian Big Bowl, Any Day French Toast, and an appetizer or two (Spicy Balsamic Maple Wingz!). We'll see!

I have a couple of seitan-based dishes planned, so I made the seitan lite tonight (since it takes several hours). It's OK - not something I'd put that much time and effort into on a regular basis. But I think baking is my least favourite seitan-cooking method. The piece I had (admittedly plain out of the pan) was decent with some smoked garlic mayo. I'm looking forward to seeing how it works out in recipes.

Smokin BBQ portobello sandwiches
I thought this was very good, but not too stand out. I think I enjoyed it more than P, but he's not a fan of messy sandwich type things. I used onion buns, and they sandwich was enjoyable. Very simple and a nice sauce.

Smokin chipotle BBQ sauce
Yummy sauce. I didn't use the chipotle powder because my chipotles are quite hot (so much so that I had to squirt in some agave), but did add a little extra ACV. I like this sauce, but don't know that I would seek it out again.

Braised peas with radicchio and shallots
Not a huge fan. I even bought a shallot for this, which I never do because I can't tell the difference between it and onion. The radicchio is just too bitter. The peas were ok, but didn't enjoy this much. No more radicchio for us!

I made the oatmeal raisin cookies last night and they were light and crispy but really sugary! Everyone wants their oatmeal cookies to taste like their mom's so this one wasn't for me. The flavor of the cookie was excellent (using my $8 Penzey cinnamon didn't hurt!) but they were too sugary for me.

I brought them to work and people started to shout "vegan cookies!!!". The word got around quickly and they were immediately gobbled up.

I highly recommend the seitan katsu salad recipe in the book! Double the sauce when you make it, you won't be sorry.

I made the Seitan and Dumplings tonight. OMG so good! I couldn't stop eating it. I love dumplings (it's like biscuits and gravy soup!), but I've never made them myself (as far as I can recall). This really hit the spot. Super comforting, delicious, kinda fattening but still healthy with the veg. Oh, but it took ages to make, even if you don't count the nearly 3 hours it takes to make the seitan. Still, it was worth it, because it's forking amazing.

So, I made the chili on sunday and had the leftovers for dinner yesterday with some cornbread I found in the freezer. I made it with beer anyway, my dad found one last bottle in the garage! This is the best chili recipe ever! (though it was very hot because I used only two cans of tomatoes, but I mellowed it out a bit with a tablespoon of maple syrup). I love the combination of molasses, beer and cocoa, it gives the chili a depth that I haven't experienced in any other chili recipe I've made. So satisfying!

I borrowed AVK from a friend (thank you ameyfm!) for this week, buuuut my in-laws are visiting and I'm just not sure how much I'll actually get to cook from it.

If nothing else, though, on Friday night or Saturday morning I'm going to make apple something. I noticed there are like 3 apple pie recipes, and another friend just gave me a big basket of apples. Mmm, pie.

We are on a "no dinner during the week" eating plan, so not much cooking going on here.
However, I've said this elsewhere, but will say it here as well:
Make the spice mix! Make double or triple once you try it and can't seem to stop adding it to EVERYTHING (Well, almost...)
Seriously, it's just that amazing.

I made the Fork-and-Knife Reubens last night.

I'm a fan of anything with sauerkraut, but for some reason (I think it may have been the dressing) these didn't really seem "Reubeny" to me. The marinade for the seitan was, however, delicious. When I think of it as a hot sandwich and not a Reuben, these were a huge success.

Last night I made the Greek Town Gyros wit Tzatzika Sauce. They were delicious! I made the seitan on Sunday, so they were pretty easy to throw together last night. That seitan is amazing.

I made the midwest cole slaw. It's an easy and very basic recipe, but she has wayyyyy better stuff in here. I also made the Jalepeno Poppers with Lemon Creme. Ahhhhhmazing.
I don't think I will get much more done out of this book as I am working on some testing for another Tami project. I think she will forgive me :)

I just got my book in the mail yesterday, thanks to Tami's giveaway :)
I'm planning on making the eggplant parm and I might even try to deglutenize the burger buns. Others I'm considering are the movie night potato skins and the sweet and sour slaw.

I love those poppers!!! I've made them a couple times.

Made the Asian-Style Salad Bowl. Nice mix of veggies and loved the marinated Tofu. Didn't make enough dressing, though. Also made the Cheesy Mac and Greens. Next time I'll cut the liquid, really watery. I think the water from the spinach increased the liquid. The Chocolate Chip Quick Cake was good, not too sweet.

I made Tami's Mexican Style Beans on Bread for breakfast! Two slices of savory French toast topped with black beans, diced tomatoes, corn, salsa, and avocado!!! This breakfast kept me full for hours!


Mexican Style Beans on Bread from American Vegan Kitchen by Vegan Crunk, on Flickr

I also made the Greek Town Gyros with Tzatzika Sauce. My partner and I thought they were wonderful! I really love the sauce and think it would be excellent as a regular salad dressing or dip! The seitan was so easy - just mix, knead a couple minutes, and then let the steamer do the rest - I made it the night before so all I had to do tonight was slice it, marinate it, and fry it up and that was that. I would definitely make this recipe again but next time would probably use lavash bread cuz it was super messy or just I might just have it as a salad.