Best Selling Vegan Products
Over the past few months, I've been complaining about the results of Jane's vegan baking efforts. Don't get me wrong... she's been complaining too. Overall, we've come to the conclusion that vegan baked goods just aren't as good as traditional baked goods. And while we miss the olden days of Princess Cake (the most amazing cake -- genoise, marzipan, whipped cream, raspberry filling... mmm, princess cake) and other goodies, we're willing to make this "sacrifice." Well, as of today, that's changed. Jane made the vegan brownie recipe from "The Joy of Vegan Baking
" ... and oh my god it's amazing.
These brownies are not too sweet. They don't have that "hmm that's different" taste that many vegan baked goods are subject too. These brownies taste exactly like BROWNIES. They're so good that Jane is making me take the remainder in to work tomorrow because she doesn't trust herself to be around them. And she's already planning to make a second batch to welcome our new neighbors this weekend. Who needs Starbuck's vegan brownies when you can make these at home.
Best Selling Vegan Products
Grr. Some of you may have heard about yesterday's disaster on the 405 (Los Angeles freeway near LAX airport). A truck overturned and traffic was absolutely abominable in the area ALL day!!!! Needless to say, my commute was unpleasant, in both directions. Alhtough certainly not as unpleasant as the poor truck driver who perished in the accident.
I don't really deal all that well with traffic issues. I've been driving this same route for a long time and know exactly how long (to the minute) it is supposed to take me, and when my commute goes long, I start getting antsy. Jane is always threatening to take the clock out of my car so I'll be less frustrated. I'm not sure if that would be a larger benefit to me or to her!
At any rate, I love my wife. Since this is not a blog about marriage, I won't be writing about the times I don't totally love my wife or how difficult marriage can be... Not that ours is a bad marriage, but every marriage can be trying at times. On the positive side, there are moments that make you never want to be single again. Last night was one of them.
I finally arrived home after 1 hour and 16 minutes to find Jane hard at work in the kitchen. Apparently, after seeing the traffic report, she realized I wouldn't be getting home at a reasonable hour. So she made one of my favorites, the spanikopita recipe from Real Food Daily Cookbook
. It was just as good as last time. But Jane made a few minor alterations. Mainly, she forgot the leeks, so she used maui onions instead. Personally, I couldn't tell the difference and it was just as yummy as last time! And what a treat to come home to!
And for dessert, because I was so cranky, Jane whipped up a quick batch of muffins. This time she put in wheatberries for added crunch and the fruit was gooseberries. (Huh?) So, the muffins are crunchy and tart. I think they are very good, but Jane doesn't care for them that much. Also, she's still working on perfecting the basic muffin recipe... When she's happy with it, she's promised to post it for you all.
Oh, and Happy Halloween!
Best Selling Vegan Products
Our new vegan lifestyle has led to a huge increase in our tofu consumption. Looking to replace meat with some kind of protein, tofu has been the easiest choice. Of course, there is conflicting information out there about just how much tofu you should be consuming. Admittedly, I have done only the most cursory of online searches to solve this newest (to us) nutritional mystery. Since the new vegan thing is different enough, I'm not going to do any further research for now. Suffice it to say, there are other ways to get your protein. Jane usually makes a tofu
stir-fry once a week. And there's always a bean based dish or three. We've also had a few things with store-bought chicken seitan. And we've discovered that some grains have protein too! (Couscous and quinoa, for example.)
Looking for alternative sources of protein, Jane decided to try and make seitan at home. We've had seitan, or "wheat meat" as it is also known, in a few of the vegan restaurants we've tried and it's been mostly good. Time for an adventure in the kitchen.
We really both love the Real Food Daily Cookbook cookbook by Ann Gentry (as we've said many times already). However, her recipe for basic seitan was far more work than Jane felt like undertaking for her first venture into the world of home-made seitan. We did have a recipe in The Accidental Vegan
by Devra Gartenstein that looked simple.
Basically, you take some wheat gluten (Jane used Bob's Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten) and water to form the dough. That's the attractive picture at the top of this post. We've both made bread before and adding the water to the wheat gluten is pretty much like the beginning stages of making a loaf of bread. However, it really looks like cat puke, as any of you who live with the furry beasts can attest to! 
Then you boil it in water with soy sauce and ginger. Pretty simple. And pretty tasty.
For our dinner last night, Jane then made a gravy based on nutritional yeast and flour and which was rather good. She also roasted butternut squash with olive oil and brown sugar, salt and pepper. The picture does not do it justice. Dinner was yummy. Hearty winter fare. As usual, our entree was accompanied by a salad of mixed field greens with onion, apple, cranberries and a balsamic dressing.
Best Selling Vegan Products
We've been vegans for a little over three months now. Since we're old dogs (in our 40s), it's been a bit of a challenge to change our way of thinking about what a meal should be, and that's been harder on Jane than on me, since she prepares most of what we eat.
To date, most of the recipes Jane has tried have been more than reasonable and there have even been a few that have been outright delicious. But nothing has come close to what she made for dinner last night. We had spanakopita, greek spinach pie, and it was restaurant quality food. And I don't mean Denny's! The recipe was out of Ann Gentry's Real Food Daily Cookbook, with a slight modification, Jane didn't bother making triangles, she just layered everything in a pyrex dish and made a pie. I cannot recommend that cookbook highly enough (link below). The recipe in the book is called "Phyllo Triangles with Spinach and Tofu Cheese."
This will be the dish Jane prepares for non-vegan company. You have to get this cookbook!
Over the past few months, I've been complaining about the results of Jane's vegan baking efforts. Don't get me wrong... she's been complaining too. Overall, we've come to the conclusion that vegan baked goods just aren't as good as traditional baked goods. And while we miss the olden days of Princess Cake (the most amazing cake -- genoise, marzipan, whipped cream, raspberry filling... mmm, princess cake) and other goodies, we're willing to make this "sacrifice." Well, as of today, that's changed. Jane made the vegan brownie recipe from "The Joy of Vegan Baking
