Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Just picked this up the other week...

So far I made Skillet Mac N Cheeze. It was my first attempt at such a dish, so I think I was weird-ed out by the sauce. I had a bunch of leftovers, which I turned in to Chili Mac the next night and it reminded me of Velveeta. It made a good lunch for a few days!
I am going to make the Black Bean Soup with Kale and Rice overnight in my slow cooker tonight I don't think I've ever had kale (never prepared it myself at least), so I'm looking forward to the soup!

The smoky Tempeh with potatoes and cabbage is amazing! My dad requests it all the time. I really like this cookbook, though I was skeptical at first.

I've made a few recipes. ("Reviews" and pics on my blog)

Almost Instant Chickpea Tomato Soup
http://cupcakesandquinoa.blogspot.com/2 ... -soup.html

and the Quick Lo Mein
http://cupcakesandquinoa.blogspot.com/2 ... cheap.html

I made the Lo Mein with tofu once and then a second time with seitan, and I much prefer the seitan! Also, I used the ramen noodles with the tofu Lo Mein (per Robin's suggestion) and I didn't like that. Using the spaghetti (her other suggestion) the next time was much tastier in my opinion.

I love this book, but am still going through the recipes as I haven't had it very long.

So far I have made the veg. stock, the quick lo mein (pretty good but I thought the tofu needed more flavour), and the better-than-takeout tofy stir-fry (I absolutely LOVED this recipe and have made it a couple of times - I keep coming back to it rather than making something new)... hmmm I thought I had made more. I am planning on making the big stick pepperoni though this weekend and maybe using it in the minestrone, and a batch of the wheatballs to throw in the freezer for quick meals when I am busy.

The French Lentil Chili was really good!

I LOVED the Big Stick Pepperoni (which is odd, because I wasn't much of a fan of plain ol' pepperoni). I have only used it for pizzas and never tried it in the minestrone, but I'd eat it in practically anything.

So.. the Black Bean Soup with Kale and Rice was tasty. Definitely making it again. It was easy and gave us lunch all week!

I just got this about a week ago and made the wheatballs and marinara sauce on Friday. The wheatballs are officially my new favorite non-meatball (used to be the beanballs from vcon), and my (omni) mom loved them too! The marinara sauce was ok, I still like the VWAV pizza sauce better. I definitely look forward to trying more recipes from this book!

This is my go-to book lately. I'm not good at remembering actual names but I think you'll get the idea. We've tried and loved:
Barley Risotto with White Beans and Smokey Tempeh
Smokey Tempeh with Cabbage and Potatoes
New Year's Stew (black eyed peas and rice and greens)
Curried Pilaf
Slow Cooker Roast Beef (though it seemed more "turkey"-like to us)
Pepperoni
Vegetable Cobbler

There's probably more that I am forgetting.

I broke in my slow cooker with the Corned Seitan recipe last weekend. I don't know what to say about it because while I liked it at first, it kind of made me want to vomit by the end of the meal. I am almost positive that this is due to the pickling spices. I have never used them before and don't really know what their function is in this recipe. The ones I got don't really seem edible because there are huge chunks of spices and peppercorns and the smell was awful. I would make this again but leave off the pickling spices. Or maybe just make the regular pot roast.

I won this in a giveaway and I'm really glad I did. I love the Chickpea Tomato Soup, Succotash Stew, Pepperoni, and Cheezee Sauce (it makes an awesome queso if you mix it with a can of Rotel).

My mom is really loving this book too, she made Mom's Cabbage Soup or something and really liked it... first time I've ever had my mom tell me to check out a recipe in my own book!

For anyone who has made the wheatballs recipe, did they come out overly mushroomy? Ive got a mushroom hater in the house... :(

Dan dan linguine! Absolutely awesome! Who cannot love the combination of noodled, tempeh, peanut butter and tahini? Plus extra goodies of course : )

I don't think so. I have a mushroom hater who also hates anything remotely seitan-y (chickpea cutlets, even!) and I actually got her to eat some of these. But my mushroom/seitan hater is 3, so maybe yours has a different degree of difficulty. Process them really, really well to get rid of the texture.

Do they call for mushrooms? I didn't put any in mine and they turned out just fine. Awesome, even.

I also have a mushroom hater. I made these for the first time this week and subbed cashews for the mushrooms. I think they turned out tasty enough! I thought about blending some well-cooked rice next time.

I'm a little late to the party here. But this cookbook ruled my summer.

I love:
- Baked Ziti. OK admittedly I change this one up a lot (I actually usually make Isa's V-con cashew ricotta recipe instead of the tofu ricotta it calls for, and I have a variation of Isa's that uses more cashews and a block of mori-nu for a nearly-pantry-only version when I don't have fresh tofu around). But some form of this baked ziti gets made nearly weekly. It comes together in the time it takes to make pasta, then bakes in 45 hands-off minutes, and freezes well - for two people half a recipe is plenty, so I usually make one for today and one for a busy night later.
- Lettuce wraps - tasty!
- Peanut noodle salad. Tasty and I like the simple, quick baked tofu. The flavors are similar to the lettuce wraps, though, so don't be like me and make them together.
- Nacho taco salad - good, quick, and easy. I'm lazy and use jarred salsa from TJ's and it's still cheap.
- Tortilla strata. Three cheers from the husband when I make this, and it's quite possibly the quickest veg casserole I've ever seen. It comes mostly out of jars, so as long as you have the tortillas it's easy to keep the other ingredients around.

Less love for:
- Blushing Alfredo Fettuccine - it was fine, but a little too much pasta, not enough veg for me. I rarely like vegan fettuccine alfredo recipes, though, so the sauce is good - just steam some broc or whatever with it if you don't like straight up pasta and sauce.
- Samosa Pie. Fantastic in concept, but the seasonings tasted more like "attempt at making indian-ish food by dumping curry powder into stuff" than like actual Indian food. I'd love to hear the secrets of anyone with better success on this.
- Essence of Porcini-stuffed dinner mushrooms. These were fine, but not the kind of memorable that makes it into my daily repertoire.


All in all, this is a great cookbook for the simple feat of making vegan food a lot cheaper! And the cheap often doesn't come at the expense of spending all day in the kitchen (you can make salsas and sauces from scratch to save more money when they're in season, but you can just as easily stock up and used jarred items when they're not - Robin sticks to quantities that are the same as the jars at the store, so your choice, your convenience). For me most of the high cost of vegan cooking comes from pricey convenience foods when I'm too lazy to cook, so just having super-quick low-work meals (ESPECIALLY low-effort casseroles I can throw in an oven and ignore) helps a lot with that.

I just checked this out at the library and about 10 pages into it I've decided I am definitely going to buy it. I can't wait to make the pepperoni, the fettucine, the seitans...I also love how many tips are in here and all the menu ideas about how to transform leftovers and freezing/saving different things.

I love this cookbook! I made seitan for the first time from this book and it turned out perfectly.

I made the peanut noodle salad last night for supper - it was delicious!! I think it might become a bit of a staple with me - quick, relatively healthy, and I usually have all of the required ingredients on hand (I mixed up the veggies though form what was listed, but that's something I always do with recipes like these).

Last night I made Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal cookies. Yum! I didn't realize until I went to put them in the oven, that they were "no-bake." They're super rich and almost fudge-like. Also, easy to through together last minute, as they don't need to bake and the ingredients are pretty basic.

I have been eying this recipe as I love all of the ingredients. Good to know they are delicious!

This was the 3rd cookbook that I came to own. My wonderful girlfriend gave it to me as a birthday gift, and it's been my absolute favorite cookbook. The Stovetop Mac was great, the Cincinnati Suburb chili was a delight, and the combo...great!

I made the tabbouleh recipe from this book for a vegan potluck last summer, and my husband and all the guests loved it so much I made another batch for work lunches. Some of my husband's co-workers (meat eaters) were intrigued and he let them taste it ... I should do this more often; maybe more people will be more inclined to eat this way.