The Joy of Vegan Baking: The Compassionate Cooks' Traditional Treats and Sinful Sweets List Price: $19.95 Sale Price: $12.48 Average Rating:
	Whether you want to bake dairy- and egg-free for health, ethical, or environmental reasons, The Joy of Vegan Baking lets you have your cake and eat it, too! Featuring 150 familiar favorites -- from cakes, cookies, and crepes to pies, puddings, and pastries -- this book will show you just how easy, convenient, and delectable baking without eggs and dairy can be...

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.

Hi everyone. It's Jane writing tonight. Lane and I realized that he's hogging all the spotlight, so tonight I'm getting the byline. To tell the truth, we often collaborate on these posts. I tend to spend time in the morning researching what we'll write about (time permitting), and put together an outline, and then Lane will flesh it out.

Things were hectic around here today, so I just threw something together for dinner. As I rummaged around the fridge I found the Trader Joe's Chicken-less Strips I'd purchased in the recent past (sorry, the box got trashed, so no image). There are always onions on hand in our house, and I had asparagus spears and orange pepper. Perfect. I could make a dinner out of that. Plus we always have salad with any dinner I make.

I chopped the veggies, added a little olive oil to the pan, and sauteed my onions. When they were translucent I threw in the peppers, and after they'd cooked together for a bit in went the chicken-less strips and the asparagus. For some reason (could it be that I didn't read the package?), I thought the strips were seasoned. Imagine my surprise when I tasted the concoction brewing in my frying pan. It definitely needed something. And I had moments until everything was done. Thankfully, my pantry is fully stocked. I threw in a few pinches of sea salt, a squeeze of lemon juice and about a half teaspoon of ground ginger. It came together quite well.

Lane and I would definitely recommend this product. It has good mouth feel and seems to be very versatile. Best of all, it cooks up in moments. It took me under 15 minutes to throw tonight's dinner together. Next time I think I might try throwing the chicken-less strips in a light broth, or even pasta.

These strips might even compete with the prepared Gardein chicken products we get at Whole Foods, specifically the Vegan Chicken Sonoma Salad and Vegan Chicken Curry Salad. The "chicken" in the salads is cubed, and this "chicken" is sliced, but otherwise, the taste and texture seem to be the same to us. Since Gardein doesn't advertise where their products are sold, I'm wondering if this is a private label version packaged for Trader Joe's? Anyway, we'll be keeping this stuff on hand.

Jane and I have tried the Vegan Chicken Sonoma Salad and Vegan Chicken Curry Salad from Whole Foods. The vegan chicken is actually Gardein Chicken, produced by Garden Protein International (thanks for pointing us in that direction Stephanie). We were quite impressed with the taste and texture of the vegan chicken and commented to each other that we thought meat-eaters would find this product equally palatable.

However, it looks like we may have been wrong about that. The National Post, a Canadian publication, conducted an informal, blind taste-test with four of their employees. The employees were fed Caesar Chicken Salad. One version was prepared using President's Choice Gardein Chicken. The second version was prepared with Lilydale Seasoned Sliced Chicken Breasts (real chicken). In all four instances, the employees seemed to have an issue with the Gardein product. Only one of the panelists liked it, but still complained about the "greyness" of the product.

My favorite comment:

Laura I feel like I put my life on the line by ingesting the grey matter that was the "chicken" of Salad No. 1. Is this what you make all the interns do?

Isn't that what interns are for?

Of course, this is a miniscule, and statistically insignificant survey. But it does make me wonder... Do Jane and I like these products because we've forgotten how "real" meat tastes? Perhaps. Regardless, we know we like the product and that's all that matters to us! Well, that and the fact that others like it enough that it continues to sell.

Jane was planning on making this recipe for dinner tonight. It's an Indian dish that looks rather intriguing. We have all the ingredients on hand and so I was looking forward to a new and (hopefully) delicious meal. Alas, it was not to be.

It was gardening weather out there today, which means that we spent a good portion of the late morning/early afternoon working. OK, weeding. It's time to start working on getting the vegetable beds ready. Living in the Los Angeles area, and not being billionaires, we don't have a huge plot of land to "farm." Typically I plant tomatoes, peppers and sometimes zucchini or blue beans, and once (very unsuccessfully) acorn squash. We also have a lemon tree which seems to be productive every 18 months or so. And Jane keeps an herb garden which is usually comprised of the standards: basil, dill, thyme, mint, and of course, the ubiquitous rosemary. So even though we don't have a farm, there is a reasonable percentage of our property devoted to raising produce. Unfortunately, we tend to be a little lazy once football season starts. So there is always a good deal of work to be done at the beginning of the gardening season.

After all that hard work we had some hummus and veggies for lunch. But, when it came time to think about dinner, neither of us felt like getting dressed enough to go out, and Jane didn't have the energy to try a new recipe. Instead we had Trader Joe's Vegetable Biryani with tofu, and a green salad. The Biryani was great, light and fluffy. I'm not sure how it would compare to home-made biryani, but we both loved it. Jane cooked some tofu and threw it in with the rice. It was a super-quick, super-easy dish, absolutely perfect for those nights when you come too tired to even think about what's for dinner.