Chinese Takeout that you make yourself, more soup, and a recipe for chickpea salad

Jason posting: 

A couple weeks ago I was really jonesing for something with a real "Chinese Takeout" feel to it - but have become irrationally afraid of the Chinese Takeout place in Kenmawr plaza.

At first I thought they were really friendly - then one night I ordered Vegetable Mei Fun and asked for no egg and all freaking hell broke loose.  I kid you not there was a woman literally screaming - in actual hysterics - in the background in an Asian language while the girl on the other end of the line explained, dead-pan, that there isn't egg in Vegetable Mei Fun.

Well, there is egg in it at like every other Asian takeout place I've ordered from - thus being trained to ask them not put it in.

So every time I would go in there after that I was convinced that they were looking at me with something close to hate.

So I actively avoid it now while being at least partially aware that all of this likely happened in my head and not in reality.

Anyway - like I was saying I wanted something with a Chinese Takeout feel to it without wondering if they were going to spit in my food because I asked for no egg in something.

Gina reads this blog called the V Word.  You should too - its really good.  The recipe that I found for Sweet and Sour Cauliflower (it ryhmes) was from that blog.

It's surprisingly easy to make, it just feels like you're chopping vegetables forever because you're really hungry because you worked overtime and then had to drive to the grocery store and then had to explain to the 16 year old cashier what that weird looking brown thing is (ginger) and that yes, you can actually eat that.

Then you get home and you're all, "Why dont I just order a no-cheese pizza?"  but then the part of you that isn't 17 years old says in this annoyingly adult voice that you suddenly realize is your own: "That would be a waste of money since you just bought all these freaking groceries.  Now clean your room."

In truth, her recipe - found here - only really calls for cauliflower and the ingredients to make the freaking amazing sweet and sour sauce.  I wanted more so I added green pepper and celery.

While making this I recommend listening to something radio Pop.  Anything will do.  This chinese takeout place I used to go to in Oakland always blasted radio pop and I now associate it with eating cheap asian food.

Anyway, the final product is delicious and easy and looks like this:

A few nights later I wanted soup and Gina was all "Yeah, that sounds good!" but was really thinking ("Why do you always want to make soup that you have to simmer for like an hour - and that's after all the freaking prep work when we're already really hungry?")  And because I can read minds I answered her back, telepathically, ("Because it's so goooooooooooooooooood!")  And the lightbulbs all exploded around us from the strength of my Carrie-esque telepathy.

That didnt really happen.

But this did:

It's from the book Vegan Eats World by Terry Hope Romero.  She calls it Egyptian Lentil Soup.  The neat spin on it is that while the lentils are simmering with carrots in broth - you slice up 3 large red onions and saute these for about 15 minutes in olive oil with toasted sesame seeds and fennel seeds.  When that is done you add the wonderful sauteed onion mixture directly into the lentil soup.

Lastly, today we made what has become our own recipe for chickpea salad sandwiches.  I'll let you in on the secret:

First, put on LaGrecia and then CRANK IT.

What you'll need for the chickpea salad:
1 15 oz can of chickpeas (drained and rinsed if them being in an aluminum can freaks you out like me.)
1 medium onion (chopped into very small pieces)
2 stalks of celery (chopped into very small pieces)
1 medium carrot (grated into it)
1/4 cut of nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 heaping tablespoon of brown mustard (or deli mustard or really whatever you've got)
3 tablespoons of Veganaise

How you do this thing:
In a mixing bowl, dump in the drained can of chickpeas and use your hands to smash them to smithereens.  It's cathartic.  Make this a really positive, hippyish experience by picturing them as all of the world's negative energy and you're not just crushing them, you're coercing them into understanding, empathy, and total transcendence.

You don't have to be really anal - I mean, it's okay if some of the chickpeas dont get crushed.  Seriously, you can stop squishing them now.  Stop it!  COME ON! STOP!

Thank you.

Now dump in all the other ingredients and mix very very very well with an absurdly large fork.

Spread that noise on whatever bread you've got lying around (if its moldy, pick it off.... I'm joking, I was never that punk.)

It looks like this:

Gina made "fries" out of chickpea flower and some kind of magic.  They look like this:

I LOVED them but she thought they were too spicy.  I was like, "Nothing can be too spicy."  She was unimpressed with my resilience. 

THAT'S IT~!

Happy Spring! (If you aren't in Pittsburgh where it's SNOWING)

Hello friends! Gina here. Thought I would give you a nice and hefty update on our food lives recently. We have a lot of ground to cover so let's get started.

I think it was last month when I decided we should start using tempeh more, it's so delicious and a nice change from tofu. The problem is, you can't really buy tempeh in bulk anywhere around here and it's expensive at our local Market District. So it will be a once in awhile treat. I did however make the most convincing version of bacon I have tasted yet! I used a recipe entitled "Tempeh Bacon" (surprising recipe name, right??) from Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and it turned out awesome. I promptly made a vegan BLT and rejoiced. I think Jason was at band practice when I made this and when he came home I was giddy with excitement and then we both rejoiced and promptly ate all the tempeh bacon.

Every Christmas Day we spend the afternoon and evening with Jason's family at my sister-in-law's house. Her husband always makes Beef Wellington for dinner and he makes a delicious veggie version for us as well. When I saw the recipe for Portobello Wellington on Pinterest I was smitten immediately. The recipe is here. I had for some unknown reason decided to embark upon this recipe on a weekday after work. It is definitely a long process, I would save it for a weekend dinner or a holiday event. We did not sit down to eat dinner until about 8pm and had transformed into the grumpy versions of Gina and Jason that appear when we are starving. We made the entire recipe and it was absolutely amazing and by the time it was actually finished we really deserved it to be amazing or we probably would have broke all of our plates and ran into the streets screaming. 

The next one I want to show you is Chocolate Black Bean Brownies. I sadly did not get many pictures of these before they were devoured. We had a food day at work that I made them for and they got destroyed. Everyone loved them and they amazed me solely because you really cannot taste the black beans or peanut butter in these brownies. The way they come together they taste super fudgy and chocolatey and perfect, I was very pleased and cannot wait to make them again. I was actually going to make them tonight but Jason at some point ate the last can of black beans and it's cold and SNOWING(wtf spring?) out so I am not leaving my house. Here is my one picture of them, it's not a good picture and it makes the brownie look kind of gross when it was seriously like heaven. This recipe was from a blog called The "V" Word that I adore. I previously posted about Tofu Georgia which was another recipe from the same blog. Every recipe we have tried on there has been incredible. Jason made a really good sweet and sour dish from a recipe on there and I will let him tell you about it, but it was also super super good. 

Lastly, we come to my new favorite dinner (last two nights dinner anyways) which is pretty much just frittata again. I found a dinner fritatta recipe on The "V" Word and we made that last night. No pics though because my mama stopped by to see us and we got distracted and forgot to take one. I used this recipe for Spinach, Artichoke, and Mozzarella Fritatta and it tasted just like one of my favorite things, Spinach and Artichoke Dip. It didn't taste like you were eating dip though. It just was awesome. 

So tonight I used the same idea for my own fritatta and used up some stuff we had in the kitchen. I used one block of tofu and crumbled it up in a mixing bowl, I mixed in probably half a cup of nutritional yeast, two healthy squeezes of Dijon mustard, about a teaspoon each of garlic powder, turmeric, pepper and smoked paprika. On the stove I steamed mustard greens and assorted veggies. I used one small white onion and sliced it pretty carelessly regarding size. Once the veggies and greens were done I threw those along with the onion into the mixing bowl and got a little crazy. Mixed it all up with my hands because that's easiest and most thorough. I then added in a bunch of mozzarella Daiya which you can tweak to wherever your love of cheese falls on the cheese meter. In a pie pan I sprayed the bottom with canola oil cooking spray and then coated the entire bottom with panko bread crumbs. I then put my delicious mixture into the pie pan and pressed it down as much as I could. I sprinkled some bread crumbs and some more Daiya on top. I had preheated the oven to 400 and threw that sucker in for 30 minutes, let it cool for 10 and then grabbed a large dinner plate and flipped that baby upside down onto the plate.....and spilled stuff everywhere. It wasn't thaaaat bad, I just misjudged where the plate actually was so I lost a little bit of this glorious fritatta. It was so good, I wish I had made two of them because we devoured it almost entirely. 

Before I had any cats I had the best dog ever, I end this post with Rudy. 

I am the King of Breakfast - And other stories.

This is Jason, and I think after 31 years I have finally decided that Breakfast is likely my favorite meal.

Well, maybe sometimes dinner.

Or lunch if its, like, the Loving Hut Buffet.

But more often than in the past, Breakfast is my favorite meal (on the weekends when I'm not rushed.)

ROUND ONE

All distinctions aside, this weekend I went a little cray, starting on Saturday morning when I woke up with a plan.  My band was recording a little demo that day and I didn't have a ton of time, but I wanted to eat something that would keep  me going (that wasn't Morning Soup - my normal fall back).  I banked on Frittata and biscuits to keep me full (it worked until like 3pm, which is kind of a long time).

Frittata, like a lot of recipes, is very different depending on where you have it.  In my family, we eat it Easter morning, and it is a big bowl of eggs and sausage and things not formally held together in any kind of shape.  In Gina's family it is more like a quiche without the crust.

The version I made was more like Gina's fam's.

Italian in origin, Frittata is a term for cooking eggs on a skillet.  Actually, in reading about it on Wikipedia, Gina's family's way of making it is actually the way its supposed to be done.

Basically you mix a bunch of stuff up with eggs, cook it in a pan for a while, the invert the cooked mixture onto a plate and VOILA!  You have a Frittata that you can cut up and distribute to your hungry family.

In place of eggs I used tofu.  The recipe was from Vegan Brunch and believe me, it is not your grandmother's Frittata.  It was tofu kneaded until it was the consistency of ricotta, then I sauteed garlic and cups of finely chopped cauliflower until browned.  I added these to the tofu along with nutritional yeast, soy sauce and lemon juice, and a small carrot grated in, and 2 tablespoons of curry power and a little cumin - and then mixed it well.  The mixture was then pressed into a pie pan and baked for 20 minutes.

When I took it out, the top was slightly browned:

I let it cool for about 10 minutes.  In the meantime I made biscuits in the toaster oven.  You heard me.  The Toaster.  Oven.

Then I inverted the Frittata onto a plate, like so:

The final product looked like this - all in about 35 minutes tops:

While I ate it, I tried to imagine that this was what Led Zeppelin always ate before recording and then gave up.

That was Breakfast #1 of the weekend.

ROUND TWO (Breakfast born from bitterness)

 Round two - I woke up Sunday morning, sat in the living room watching it snow and thought with bitter envy at how a little over a year ago this would have been the perfect day to go to the Quiet Storm, or gather up a crew and head to Zenith.
I thought about our options.  Bob's Diner, Eat n' Park, Central Grill, First Watch.  They all amounted to the exact same meal in a different setting (at variably different prices):  Oatmeal, toast (if you beg them not to pre-butter it) and homefries.

And this Saturday, that just would do.  I broke out Vegan Brunch yet again thinking there had to be something in there that would save us from oatmeal.

Gina was still sleeping when I started to chop up the potatoes.  She awoke around the time the water was starting to boil.  I threw on the album Father, Son, Holy Ghost by Girls and cranked it.  It was Sunday, after all.

Around the time I was straining the boiled potatoes and beginning to mash them with a big fork, I had finished the Girls album and was blasting and singing along to Hi, Everything's Great by Limbeck.  This was the soundtrack while added to the mixing bowl nutritional yeast, lemon juice, breadcrumbs, and 16 ounces of thawed frozen mustard greens.  I pressed all this down into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan and covered the top with more breadcrumbs and some smoked paprika.  That sucker was then baked for 30 minutes.

This probably would have been enough for a meal but I was defiant.  I wanted freaking Quiet Storm soysauge and I was going to have it dammit.

I threw on Dinosaur Junior's Green Mind album while I set up the steamer.  Then I mashed up some cannellinni beans, mixed in vital wheat gluton, soy sauce, vegetable broth, fennel seeds, oregano and basil, salt and pepper, more nutritional yeast and mixed it up into a dough ball.  I divided the dough ball into four deliciously smelling parts and rolled them in tin foil, plopped them into the steamer and let them steam for 40 minutes.

I also heated up the left over Frittata from saturday.

This is the potato/mustard green thing when done:

And here's the whole freakin' plate
:

And Angels wept.

So while I was blogging this tonight, Gina was busy at work making what will become our lunch tomorrow (and probably dinner or more lunch the rest of the week)

She will have to tell you more about its story but here is a picture.  I cant wait for lunch tomorrow!  I know that it has broccoli in it, and quinoa, and cheddar daiya (because I bought the ingredients) but I dont know much else about it's preparation.  It smells awesome:

And Fin.

Revisiting The Pine.

Hello world, it's Gina. First things first,  I want to add some pictures Jason did not know I had of the polenta casserole and the homemade pizza. I actually really loved the pizza, Jason was not as fond of it because it was very rushed but hey, we've had a very rushed week or so. It was still everything a pizza should be and the first vegan homemade pizza we have made so there is definitely room for improvement. 

The polenta casserole was really just a way for me to use up stuff we had in the fridge that was near expiration date. You should try it, you can come up with some pretty cool recipes! Or some really awful ones. I've had it happen both ways, but it's always a lot of fun and I feel better knowing I'm using the food we bought instead of having to throw it away a week later. It consisted of polenta, tofu, mushrooms, daiya mozz and cheddar cheese and "Cheezy Sauce" from one of the vegan cookbooks we have. I can't even tell you how I made it because I think I modified like ten different recipes all into this one. It really did taste like scrambled eggs though, it was awesome. I always was a big omlet fan and now I think I might be on to something to replicate the taste. More on this once I experiment some more. 

I don't know if you are familiar with Frittata or not. Growing up my Dad always made it for us for breakfast. I've tried to make my own several times in the past but it is a little tricky being able to flip the mixture at the right time and I have had some major kitchen disasters. (spilling the egg mixture all over the stove etc.) My father has this down to a science though and I apologize but I could never reveal his Frittata making secrets however I can assure you he makes the best Frittata I've ever had, besides my Mom's of course. :) (which is likely the same recipe) However, Jason surprised me one morning with his own Frittata, it was awesome!! I can't wait to try some different ways to make it.

I had received an e-mail from one of our local restaurants The Pine about some special menu additions they had going on during lent and was pleasantly surprised to see a couple of options that were veganizable. 

A veggie burger with blackbean salsa on top! 

                                                        A "Vegetable Stack on Quinoa"

If you've been reading this blog for awhile you probably have realized that by default when we go out Jason always ends up choosing the healthier meal and I inevitably am eating a veggie burger or some sort of sandwich. I love bread. It's a problem, I'm working on it. 

Anyways, the veggie burger was awesome! The salsa they had on it was amazing and overall I was very pleased. Jason, however, did not have as great of an experience because his portobello mushroom tasted a lot like chlorine. I'm not sure what they marinated it in but it was pretty gross. He did not seem to have any complaints about the rest of the (very sparse) veggies on his plate. It was really nice to FINALLY see one of the restaurants nearby have some vegan options, we've had a lot going on recently and not cooking for ourselves was a much needed break! My only gripe is I wish they would keep this stuff on the regular menu. Why does it just have to be a lent special? 

Here is Stella and Max pretending to be statues on our bedposts this morning while I am probably watching Harlem Shake videos and hoping they don't jump on my head. 

An Ode to the Casserole, Asian Inspired Soup, and a Pizza Failure

Last weekend was a tough one - but a weirdly good one.

It's tough times in a family that can bring everyone together the most, and that was proven Saturday and Sunday as Gina and I found ourselves gathered at my Aunt's house - as we had been so many times before - and despite it being a shockingly serious occasion, we all I think had a weirdly good time being together again laughing around the dining room table.

A big Italian family around a table full of food is not uncommon, and nothing on this planet speaks to the need for comforting like a big tray of casserole.

Make that two.

Gina spent Sunday afternoon making two really delicious trays of "lasagna".  It was layers of eggplants, zucchini, mushrooms with a ricotta-like mixture of tofu and spinach between each and a layer of mozzarella flavored Daiya.  We didnt have time to make our own sauce - which, for this occasion would have been perfect - but instead opted for jarred, store bought sauce (sorry moms).

Gina also made the most delicious cookies ever - seriously.  You may be reading this thinking, "I've probably had better cookies."  But you haven't.

They were so delicious, in fact, that they were eaten before a picture could even happen.

I humbly assembled a forgettable salad, all of this is pictured below (minus the cookies), spread before my overjoyed niece, Tessa:

Here's a different angle.  This doesn't really do them justice.

The Gina-Made casserole's are bookending my Aunt's Stuffed Shells in the middle.  She did actually make the sauce for hers.

The left overs got us through a good part of the week.  Gina made another casserole with some leftover polenta that we had.  She used nutritional yeast and tofu in it and the whole cooked final product had the taste and texture of - I kid you not - for real scrambled eggs.  It was delicious.

AN ODE TO THE CASSEROLE - OR - "HERE'S LOOKIN' AT YOU, CASSEROLE."

I'd like to take a moment here for us all to raise a glass to casserole's in general - Thanks casserole for being so easy to make, and for saving us all from cooking due to your inevitable leftovers.

A CASSEROLE HISTORY LESSON

Okay, I had to look up our fine friend casserole in wikipedia.

Here's the gist - Casserole is the French word (who knew?) for "Saucepan".  The British call it a "Bake" instead but what do the Brits know?

It usually (unless you're weirdos like Gina and I) consists of a Meat, or Fish, various vegetables chopped, a starchy binder like pasta or potato (or tofu and spinach - don't judge.) and a sometimes a crunchy, cheesy topping.

They also make your soul weep with bliss (okay, Wikipedia did not actually say this, it was my own addition.  BUT IT'S TRUE.)

Historically speaking, I was surprised to discover that casserole's aren't that old compared to the antiquity of a lot of the things we eat.

They're credited (via Wikipedia) to a French Canadian (CANADIAN!?) immigrant by the name of Elmire Jolicoeur in Berlin, New Hampshire.

New Hampshire.

Yeah.

In the 1950's, when new forms of metal and glass cookware began to develop, the casserole gained widespread popularity.  Wikipedia claims that by the '70s the casserole "took on a less-than sophisticated image." - but it's not a real encyclopedia anyway so don't listen to them.  This is sophistication with a capitol S.

ANYWAY.

ASIAN INSPIRED SOUPS - AND A PIZZA FAILURE

We have not been cooking much recently in light of the vaguely mentioned family stuff that's been going on.  Loving Hut has been our dinner plan to an almost embarrassing extent.

The other night we did make the below soup:

It was surprisingly quick and easy to make.

Its like a pound of Shitake mushrooms, chives, ginger, garlic, soba noodles and 4 cups of vegetable broth, 4 cuts of water.  Spinach.  Lime.  Soy Sauce.  In total, prep work included it took about 40 minutes to make AND IT WAS AWESOME.

We had tried to make this a month or so ago and failed at it miserably.  The problem was, last time we put too many soba noodles into it and they soaked up pretty much all of the broth making it this weird, starchy,  Asian  inspired stew.

Oh, we also made pizza dough one night - but despite the final product tasting great, it was kind of a failure.  We had like 45 minutes of time to make dinner one night last week so we took the dough (which we had made over the weekend) out of the fridge and tried to work with it.  Bad idea.  It was way too cold to work with and the pizzas were roughly the size of a CD.

That's the messy little guy going into the oven there.  I didn't even bother taking a pic of the final product, it was so sloppy.  When we have more time we'll try pizza again and I'll run through the dough making process (which was pretty cool) more thoroughly.

That's all I gots!

Music, Winter Blues, and Foodz

Jason posting.

I feel like kind of an idiot but it never occurred to me that you can take your own, like, physical CD's (remember those?) and import them into your iTunes library.

Don't judge.

So I've spent the morning importing all my CD's into iTunes and making this killer playlist.  So far I've been rocking Alabama Shakes, Of Monsters and Men, Nico, Foxygen, Rainer Maria, Karmella's Game, and Blonde Redhead - and the list is growing.

(A note on Foxygen - A very good friend of mine whose musical opinion I hold in very high regard told me about them the other night.  He suggested I listen to their song Shuggie - so I YouTube'd it.  I suggest you do the same - it's a life changer.  Foxygen - Shuggie.  DO IT.  weirdly, the very next day a coworker gave me a copy of the same album.)

Anyway, other than listening to music and trying desperately to survive the cold, arctic tundra that is western Pennsylvania in the wintertime - Gina and I have been cooking up a storm.

Ever since the decision to go vegan, we have really limited our options for eating at restaurants 'round here (although we did discover that Angelia's does, in fact, have a veggie sub that you can get without cheese if you are obnoxiously specific about it) - so Giant Eagle and Shop 'n Save in Kennedy Twp have become our best friends.

We've also been opening the eyes of many a teenage cashier in the checkout line with all the fresh produce we've been buying.  My favorite moment so far was the following exhange at Giant Eagle a week or so ago:

Teenage Cashier #1:  What are these?  (throws a skeptic glance to Teenage Cashier #2 who is standing beside her, in her hand dangle a cluster of large beets with the greens still attached.)

Me:  Beets.

Teenage Cashier #1: (smiling uncertainly and glancing again at Teenage Cashier #2 who makes a face akin to the face one would make had I placed on the checkout counter the rotting corpse of a largely mutated sewer rat.)  I should really learn the vegetables.  What are these, lettuce?

Me:  Kale.  (by now I am smiling really intensely and making a super exerted effort to not seem like I'm "that guy" who buys all the weirdo stuff and publicly calls himself a "foodie" and over pronounces things like arugula.)

Teenage Cashier #2:  (Leaning towards Teenage Cashier #1 conspiratorially)  I've heard that beets are super gross.

Teenage Cashier #1:  (Nodding in agreement, but then glancing back at me)  I'm sure they're probably not too bad... (She is now looking at me with something like sympathy.)

Teenage Cashier #2:  I wouldn't eat them.

It was awesome.

That said, I have failed big time at actually photographing everything.  I'm going to be honest, I've been experiencing the Winter Time Blues recently and ambition has taken a severe blow.

I did catch a couple - like the below pic:

 Please excuse our kind of messy kitchen table.  This was a really great stew of Kale, parsnips, potatoes, carrots and white beans and quinoa - it's from Isa Chandra Moskowitz' Appetite For Reduction cookbook.  Here's a closer look.

 It was really delicious, and really great for the cold weather.  A really warm-you-up stew great for a frigid winter's night.  From the same cookbook (we've been really into that one recently), we also made the below mushroom and Cannellini Paprikas:

This was really savory and comfort-food-ish (to me, anyway) - Mushrooms, red onions, garlic and spices are first cooked in red wine and veggie broth until it reduces a bit.  The cannellini beans are then added, cooked for a bit, and them some of them are mashed into the broth with a fork to thicken it.  You're supposed to add smoked paprika (thus the ending of the recipe title) but we forgot to buy it and didn't feel like going to the store again so we used chili powder instead and it still tasted great. We garnished it with fresh chopped dill and served over couscous.

One night we made marinated portobello steaks (that I don't have a pic of - Gina might.)  The next night we had left over portobellos so I marinated these in olive oil, white wine, soy sauce and grated garlic and balsalmic vinegar and baked them for 20 minutes.  We then sliced 'em up into a salad of mixed greens, left over red onions, celery, carrots and chickpeas.  Thinking this wouldn't be filling enough I cracked open two cans of vegetable soup and we had Soup 'n Salad and left the table unnaturally full.

Gina made the dressing for the aforementioned salad from Isa Chandra Moskowitz' Veganomicon (yeah, we pretty much just recreate the Post Punk Kitchen every night minus the cameras, live punk band in our living room doing prep work, and cameras).  It was dijon mustard, maple syrup, red wine vinegar and grapeseed oil.

Lastly, my absolute fav - I've been making VEGAN SAUSAGES that we eat with english muffins (we've been rocking that Ezekial brand recently, its really good!) for breakfast every morning.  These are from (don't get annoyed) Isa Chandra Moskowitz' Vegan Brunch and are surprisingly simple to make and only take about 45 minutes tops.

They're made from white beans mashed up, vital wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, olive oil, vegetable broth, oregano, and fennel.  They may not photograph very well but believe me when I say, they are delicious, and meaty, and wonderful - plus, they cost practically nothing to make and last for about a week - a $6 box of Morning Star patties last about 2 days (when I am involved) and have, for no feasible reason, egg whites in them which, as you may know from prior posts, I think is creepy and that's not even from a vegan or vegetarian standpoint.  COME ON!  Its like eating cooked up embryotic fluid.

Anyway, like I said, they may not make a pretty picture, but they are delicious:

I'll try to better at taking pics of stuff we make this upcoming week.  Gina may have some that I dont know about that she took on the sly (she's sneaky like that.)

Stay warm!

Falafel!!

Howdy folks,

Since we've last spoke, Jason and I have bought several new cookbooks. We have also felt incredible after switching to a vegan diet. Morally and physically, we just feel awesome. It's been about a full month so far and I have definitely noticed I have much more energy, my skin is super clear and all my pants are too big. Jason also feels super energized and he said he rarely feels hungry after dinner anymore, he is full much quicker. He also said tonight that as of our new cooking habits he has been wishing dinner would rewind every night so he could have it again. Agreed.

 We made our first recipe from Vegan Sandwiches Save The Day this evening and it was so delicious that we ate our dinner in almost total silence due to full concentration on this meal of perfection. "Faux-lafel" is what it is lovingly referred to. Behold.

Every time I have come across a recipe for falafel I think "Oh, that sounds awesome and I should totally make this but it seems like it will take forever and I am lazy and just want to eat something." which then results in me making something bland and boring and usually unhealthy or ordering in, which is rarely good for us physically or financially. I decided it was time to just make some freakin' faux-lafel. It was actually very easy to make and I wish I wouldn't have been such a baby every time I saw a recipe for it or I could have realized this much sooner. This recipe reminded us of one of our favorite Squirrel Hill restaurants, Aladdins, and was a nice throwback to the area of Pittsburgh we miss very often. 

Jason wanted to be the one to mash the chickpeas and assorted spices together. 

From the mashed mixture, plus some flour and baking powder, you create "heaping tablespoon" patties onto a cookie sheet. 

While the patties were baking we assembled the rest of the recipe. It actually called for whole wheat pita pockets but I saw these at the grocery store and they looked really good and are only 90 calories a pop and vegan so I snatched them up and I am SUPER glad I did. They ruled. 

Tomatoes and cucumber to go inside the wrap. Also picked up some chipotle mustard and wasabi mustard for a little bit of kick. The recipe has you make tahini dressing for these but we aren't crazy about tahini sauce or dressing so we went our own way on that part. There was also shredded lettuce that is not pictured.

Time to flip these sweet thangs after 15 minutes of baking. Onto the other side for 8 minutes and then it's time to feast. 

My plate is to the left and Jason's is on the right. We had different wrapping styles.

This is Jason's finished wrap! Hooray! Isn't it gorgeous?

Here is my wrap, I somehow made it burrito style but whatevs, it was the shit. 

Jason had a salad with dinner and added some patties to that. Yum!


I am super stoked to see what other awesome recipes we find in the new cookbooks and we will definitely keep you updated as well, bloggy. 

Once upon a time, at our first apartment, a very young Max just wanted to help cook dinner. He was unaware at the time that he had the idea a little bit mixed up.